Women's Water Polo

Women's Water Polo SCIAC Championship (Day One) 
Favorites all move on in opening day of tournament

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - Pomona-Pitzer, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Occidental all moved on to complete the semifinal match-ups for day two of the 2008 SCIAC Women's Water Polo tournament.

The No. 2 seeded Sagehens took the lead just 48 seconds after the opening whistle against No. 7 La Verne to open day one of the Championship event. Laura Condon scored a hat trick in the first quarter and was the primary contributor of an 8-0 run over the first 12 minutes.

Tamara Perea, Janelle Gyorffy and Danielle Joseph scored two apiece as Pomona-Pitzer was victorious, 13-3.

ULV goalkeeper Lindsay Jones made an opening round high of 10 saves in the loss. Laura Larsen scored a team-high two goals for the Leopards.

The No. 3 Athenas were trailing for a majority of regulation time as No. 6 Whittier gave CMS all it could handle. The Poet defense held strong allowing just one goal in the first half and led 3-1 heading into the third period.

Both teams scored twice in the third but CMS managed to tie it up with just over two minutes remaining in regulation. WC's Caroline Galvin put the Poets back on top 6-5 with her game-high third goal on a power play with 1:35 left in regulation.

Following a CMS timeout and the Athenas down to its final possession, sophomore Abigayle Lin scored the game-tying goal with only three seconds left to send it into overtime.

The Athenas would take the lead for the first time just 75 seconds into the first overtime stanza after Danielle Welch netted the eventual game-winner as CMS held on for a 7-6 victory.

The final game of day one featured No. 4 Occidental against No. 5 Redlands. The Bulldogs took leads of 2-0, 4-2 and 5-4 in the first three quarters but each time the Tigers responded to tie the game.

OXY grabbed its first lead of the game with 6:22 left in the fourth period and capped off a 4-0 run of its own to lead 8-5 with just under four minutes remaining in regulation.

UR cut the deficit to two goals on a pair of occasions late in the game but it was too little too late.

The Tigers managed just two goals in the first half but exploded for seven in the final 16 minutes as Danielle Montenegro and Karie Nickle scored twice in the second half.

Bulldogs junior Sam Greenawalt scored three goals to lead all players.

The two semifinal matches include the top four seeds as the winners of Pomona-Pitzer versus Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and Cal Lutheran against Occidental will face each other in the SCIAC Tournament Championship game.

Day Two Schedule:
#5 Redlands v. #7 La Verne - 11:45 p.m.
#2 Pomona-Pitzer v. #3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps - 1:30 p.m. (Semifinal 1)
#1 Cal Lutheran v. #4 Occidental - 3:15 p.m. (Semifinal 2)
#6 Whittier v. #7 La Verne - 5:00 p.m.

Please visit http://www.clusports.com/pages/tournaments/2008WWPSCIACTournament.php for complete tournament details and results.