WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College women's water polo team was outscored 8-2 in the second half by Occidental as the Tigers swam their way to a 12-4 win on Wednesday evening in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener for both programs.

Whittier (10-10, 0-1 SCIAC) went up 1-0 at the 3:45 mark of the first quarter on Veronica Becerra's first of three goals on the afternoon but the Tigers (7-13, 1-0 SCIAC) scored the final two goals of the stanza to take a 2-1 lead into the second quarter.

Occidental's two first-quarter goals came at 2:31 and 0:45, respectively.

WC answered the Tiger run with a man-up goal at 3:31 of the second frame. Katrina Thoreson found Becerra in the middle to make the score 2-2. It took OXY less than one minute to reclaim the lead with a scoring strike at 2:37 and its goal with 1:22 left in the half made the count 4-2 at the intermission.

Anahisa Aguirre seven saves for the game which includes six in the first half.

The Tigers held WC without a goal in the third quarter as they stretched their lead to 8-2. The Poets finally broke through at 7:33 of the final quarter to end OXY's 7-0 run. Thoreson scored her lone goal of the game to make the score 9-3.

Thoreson finished with one goal and one assist.

Becerra added her final goal of the evening with 5:05 left on the clock.

Xenia Castillo dished out one assist for the game but had a game-high seven drawn ejections. Samantha McCord had one assist.

WC was just 2-for-8 in man-up situations while Occidental recorded a 2-for-4 effort.

The purple and gold will return to the water on Saturday morning as it faces Claremont-M-S at 11 am. WC will also play a game against Azusa Pacific at 3 pm.