Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College women's soccer team wrapped up their three game home stand with a 3-1 victory over the Tigers of Occidental College Wednesday evening in front of a crowd base of almost 200 in the friendly confines of the Donald E. Graham Soccer Field.

Whittier now improves to 3-4, 1-2 SCIAC, while Occidental drops to 1-4, 0-3 SCIAC.

Sophomores Allison Calabrese and Rachel Inouye added goals in the 31^st and 73^rd minutes to help propel the Poets past the Tigers in conference play.

Calabrese added the first score of the contest to put the Poets out in front 1-0 after she received a beautiful through ball in the box from junior Rose Marie Orlando that she struck past an outstretched Tiger keeper Tayler Renshaw.

This one goal lead would hold up going into the half despite Oxy holding a 4-3 advantage in shots.  Coming out in the second Occidental began playing very aggressively taking five of the first six shots but was unable to convert and on the ensuing possessions Whittier capitalized in transition scoring two from Orlando and Inouye in a five minute span.   

Orlando's goal in the 69^th minute marked her second of the season, while Inouye's in the 73^rd marked her first.  Inouye was coming down the field in transition along with sophomore Madison Shipherd and received a beautiful pass from Shipherd that she knocked into the bottom left corner of the goal to put Whittier up 3-0.

But this lead was tested in the final seventeen minutes of play as the Tigers took three shots with all being on goal, which included a goal from Taryn Ng who headed in a late goal after a back post run putting Oxy on the scoreboard at 3-1, but the damage had already been done and Whittier held on for the victory.

For the game Whittier was outshot 14-10 and was led by Orlando who took three shots with one being on goal, while Calabrese took two shots with both being on goal. 

In goal junior Shanna Falch recorded her third win of the season finishing with six saves to improve her SCIAC lead to 29.        

The Poets hit the road for the next two games as they travel to Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday, September 22 to take on the Sagehens beginning at 11:00am before traveling to Thousand Oaks, Calif. to take on the Regals of Cal Lutheran University on Wednesday, September 26 with game time slated to start at 7:00pm.