Photo by: Nicole Gervais
LA VERNE, Calif. – Pomona-Pitzer outscored the Whittier women's water polo team 2-1 in overtime as it held on for a 10-9 win Friday afternoon in the opening round of the 2011 SCIAC Tournament at the La Verne Aquatic Center.
With the loss, the Poets (12-18, 3-5 SCIAC) move to the lower half of the bracket where they will face Caltech for the right to advance to the fifth place game. Tomorrow's game against the Beavers is scheduled for 11:45 am.
Whittier led just two times in its one-goal loss to the Sagehens but never trailed by more than three goals.
Pomona-Pitzer jumped out to the early lead behind three late first quarter goals. Perri Hopkins scored with 43 seconds left and two seconds left while Tamara Perea added a goal at the 21-second mark to give the Sagehens a 3-0 advantage.
Melissa Reynoso got the purple and gold on the board just 17 seconds into the start of the second stanza but Pomona-Pitzer answered with 4:13 left before half to push its lead back to three goals.
However, Xenia Castillo found the back of the net on consecutive scoring strikes to see Whittier score two of the final three goals to go into the intermission down 5-3.
Whittier opened the second half with a three-goal run to take its first lead of the afternoon with 1:47 left in the third.
Alex Reddin followed a goal by Katrina Thoreson to put the Poets in front. Laurel Pinkley started the third quarter scoring at the 6:12 mark and Thoreson evened the score at 5-5 with 4:24 left.
The Poets surrendered the final two goals of the quarter to face a 7-6 hole.
Like it did in the second and third quarters, Whittier continued its trend of outscoring the Sagehens in the fourth frame to force overtime.
Pinkley added her second of the game at the 2:38 mark and forced the extra time with a goal in the waning seconds.
Thoreson scored the lone goal of the first three-minute overtime session to put the Poets in front 9-8, but the fourth seeded Sagehens scored both its goals in the second overtime period to earn the victory.
