LOS ANGELES - Jessica Farrell and Conny Joel combined to make 18 saves and Emily Mukai and Trillium Santin each scored five goals as the Whittier College women's lacrosse team defeated Occidental, 16-12, on Saturday afternoon for its first win of the season.

The Poets (1-1, 1-1 SCIAC) and Tigers opened the game by trading goals in the opening 2:20 before Whittier recorded the next four scores to take a 5-1 lead with 18:54 left in the first half.

Santin and Emily Mukai each scored two goals in the opening run and Carolyn Mukai added her first goal of the contest to aid the WC effort.

Occidental (0-2, 0-2 SCIAC) trimmed Whittier's lead to 5-3 with a pair of goals, however, Whittier answered with consecutive scoring strikes by Sherise Varga.

Varga's first goal of the afternoon came on a free position at the 7:48 mark and her second goal came a mere 45 seconds later.

Sisters Emily and Carolyn Mukai gave the purple and gold breathing room with back-to-back goals at 3:17 and 0:58 to take a five-goal advantage.

OXY closed the halftime deficit to 9-6 with a pair of goals to close the half with 38 seconds and 28 seconds remaining.

Whittier returned momentum to its sideline with the first three goals of the second half and after Occidental cut the lead to 12-7, the Poets added two more goals just 16 seconds apart.

The Tigers scored five of the final seven goals but it was too little, too late.

Occidental held the advantage in shots, 39-30, and draw controls, 17-13. The Poets were successful on 20-of-26 clears but were just 5-fo-12 on free position shots.

Farrell and Joel limited the Tigers to a 3-for-9 effort on FPS.

Varga finished the game with three goals on five shots, Carolyn Mukai won a game-high five draws and caused three turnovers and Kaitlin Fithian added three caused turnovers in the win.

The Poets return to action next Saturday afternoon at 1 pm as they host Claremont-M-S.