Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The Whittier College women's water polo team who jumped out to a hot start in 2013 with a 3-1 record, which included three in a row saw their winning streak snapped at the Cal Lutheran Invite with narrow losses to Cal Baptist and Cal State East Bay.
Whittier now drops to .500 on the season at 3-3 and will wrap up the Cal Lutheran Invite tomorrow, Sunday, March 3 when they take on SCIAC opponents La Verne and Cal Lutheran with game times set for 9:20am and 12:50pm, each respectively.
Game 1 (Cal Baptist – L, 12-10)
The Poets opened the invite with a match-up against NAIA opponent Cal Baptist and after the Lancers led 4-0 after the first quarter of play and then 6-2 at the half, Whittier mounted their comeback. The Purple & Gold outscored the Lancers 8-6 in the second half getting four goals in both the third and fourth quarters.
Whittier pulled within two at 8-6 at the 2:00 mark in the third quarter that capped off three goals in a row thanks to Melanie Peel, Cynthia Castillo, and Alyssa Rangel.
Starting off the fourth, the Poets went on a 3-1 run that pulled them within a goal at 10-9 after Laurel Pinkley and Monique Dorado (2) found the back of the goal. Then with a minute to play, the Poets again saw themselves down by two but Dorado again connected for her third goal of the quarter that kept the Poets in striking distance. But with 25 seconds to play, Cal Baptist was able to come down in transition to once again go back up by two, which was the insurance they needed to clinch the two goal victory.
Game 2 (Cal State East Bay – L, 8-4)
In the second match-up of the day, Whittier saw themselves matched up against the Div. I Pioneers of Cal State Eastbay.
Whittier tallied the first goal of the contest from Dorado a minute thirty in but saw the Pioneers answer with three unanswered to close out the quarter. The Poets came out firing in the second with goals from Hayley Parker and Peel that evened the score at 3-3 but with 23 seconds to play in the half, Cal State Eastbay capitalized off of an exclusion that gave them a one goal lead heading into intermission.
Three minutes into the third quarter, Whittier once again tied the game up with a goal from Sabrina Carlile but that was the last goal the Purple & Gold would total in the second half as the Pioneers would add four in a row that propelled them to the 8-4 victory.
