CLAREMONT, CA. – The Pomona-Pitzer Women's Water Polo team split the final day of the Claremont Convergence Tournament with an 11-3 loss to Division I powerhouse USC and a 16-10 win against Siena College on Saturday afternoon at Haldeman Pool. 
 
Season Impact: with the split, the Sagehens move to 5-9 overall to start the year. 
 
Pomona-Pitzer 3, USC 11 
 
The Sagehens had three different goal scorers against the Trojans as Lulu Gaither, Lauren Smith, and Mia Amberger all netted goals in the loss.  Pomona-Pitzer did a good job limiting USC's offense in the game keeping them to just 11 goals on the day and at four goals or less in each of the four quarters. 
 
The Sagehens' offense took a while to get going against USC with no goals to speak of in the first half, but the Sagehen defense held USC to just two goals in the first quarter and only three in the second as the Trojans held a 5-0 lead at halftime. 
 
USC opened the second half with two goals to make it 7-0 before Gaither scored the first goal of the day for the Sagehens to make it 7-1. USC extended its lead to 10-1 before the Sagehens came back with back-to-back goals from Smith and Amberger in the fourth as the Sagehens fell to the Trojans to start the day. 
 
Pomona-Pitzer 16, Siena 10
 
The Sagehens were led by Namlhun Jachung who scored a game-high four goals in the win. Lauren Smith and Brienz Lang also netted hat-tricks with three goals each while Abigail Wiesenthal, Kaylee Stigar, Ayva Magna, Mia Ambeger, Sara Archer, and Lulu Gaither had one. Zosia Amberger got the win in goal for the Sagehens with 12 saves and two steals while Thea Pine made an appearance in goal during the second half and came away with five saves.
 
The Sagehens took an early lead against Siena with two of the first three goals of the game by Wiesenthal and Jachung to take a 2-1 lead. Siena then came back to take the lead and controlled the first quarter against the Sagehens with a 4-1 run to end the first up 5-3.
 
Pomona-Pitzer and Siena alternated goals throughout the second quarter as Gaither and Jachung scored goals to keep the Sagehens in the game at 7-5. Smith gave the Sagehens a boost heading into halftime with back-to-back goals to end the second quarter with the two teams tied at 7-7 heading into the break.
 
The Sagehens blew the game wide open in the third after they outscored Siena 6-1 in the quarter. Lang opened the scoring for the Sagehens, which was answered immediately by Siena to tie the game at 8-8. The Sagehens then ended the third with a 5-0 run with goals from Stigar, Smith, Jachung, Amberger, and Magna to take a commanding 13-8 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
 
Pomona-Pitzer kept pouring on the goals in the fourth as Lang netted back-to-back goals and Archer made her way on the scoring sheet to cap off eight-straight goals scored by the Sagehens in the second half as Pomona-Pitzer ended the 2024 Convergence with a win over Siena.
 
Up Next: The Sagehens jump right into SCIAC play as they travel to conference rival CMS on Wednesday, March 6^th at 7:00 p.m.