Photo by: Bill McCarroll/Friends of Whittier Lacrosse
WHITTIER, Calif. – Carolyn Mukai and
Lauren Bibby combined to score all six of
Whittier's goals but the Poets couldn't overcome a
seven-goal halftime deficit as their season came to an end on
Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium in the SCIAC Tournament
Semifinals.
Redlands (11-6, 6-3 SCIAC) scored the game's first three
goals and notched seven of the first scoring strikes to take a 7-1
lead midway through the first half. Mukai ended the Bulldogs'
four-goal run with a free-position goal at the 13:33 mark but
Redlands ended the half with a pair of goals to go 9-2 at the
intermission.
Whittier (6-11, 4-5 SCIAC) found a little rhythm early in the
second half as Mukai put away her second FPS of the game at 24:48
and Bibby scored her first of two straight to trim the Bulldog lead
to 10-4. Bibby's second goal came at 13:29 on an FPS to pull
the purple and gold within five.
Redlands extended its lead to 12-4 with back-to-back goals at
11:55 and 8:08, respectively, before Mukai scored her fourth goal
of the game at 7:53. That was the last goal for the Poets and UR
added two more in the final five minutes en route to the eight-goal
win.
The game featured a total of 74 fouls and 17 free-position
shots. Whittier was 3-fo-8 on FPS while Redlands finished 4-fo-9.
Redlands outshot the Poets 35-22 and won 15 draws to WC's
seven.
Conny Joel made 11 saves in the cage for the
Poets while her counterpart from Redlands stopped 12 shots.
Alex Holtz and Mukai each had a team-high three
draws while Mukai added a team leading five ground balls and three
caused turnovers to her stat line.
Redlands advances to the SCIAC Tournament Championships against
Claremont-M-S on Sunday afternoon at 1 pm.
