Photo by: Davis Gerber
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College women's water polo team stunned Division I Harvard Wednesday 12-9 before sweeping Division I Washington & Jefferson 9-3 and Caltech 8-2 to improve to 13-10 on the season.
After a tough four games in Arizona at the ASU Invite the past weekend the Purple & Gold has come back to California in impressive fashion winning three straight and opening Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play with a victory.
Game 1 (Harvard; W, 12-9)
Harvard came into the contest No. 5 in the CWPA Top 10 Poll one spot ahead of Brown.
The Crimson and the Poets battled to a 3-3 tie through the first quarter. After trading goals, the Poets came away with a one-goal lead at the break.
In the third stanza, Harvard and Whittier were evenly matched as each squad found the back of the net twice. The fourth quarter proved to be the difference as the Poets buried two goals and denied the Crimson any opportunity to cut the deficit.
Full scoring recap to follow
Game 2 (Washington & Jefferson; W, 9-3)
Following their home contest against Harvard, Whittier traveled out to Pasadena, Calif. to take on Washington & Jefferson.
Whittier would hold W&J scoreless in the first quarter, while getting two goals from Cynthia Castillo and Laurel Pinkley. They would add another three to start off the second from Jenel Rivera, and Castillo (2) that moved the score to 5-0 before W& J would stop the bleeding with a goal at the 3:45 mark.
Two more goals would be added in the latter part of the quarter that made the score 6-2 in favor of the Poets heading into the break.
Whittier would once again hold W& J scoreless but this time in the third quarter, while adding another two goals from Hannah Ellett and Castillo before the Purple & Gold would add one more in the fourth from Meliza Rodriguez that sealed the victory.
Game 3 (Caltech; W, 8-2)
In the final match-up of the day, Whittier took on Caltech to open up SCIAC play and was held to just eight goals in the contest.
Whittier and Caltech swapped goals early before WC would add the final three to end the quarter from Jenna Cohen (3), and Natalie Halvorsen-Herrera.
In the second, Whittier added another three all coming from Ellett that moved the score to 7-1. Then in the third, each team added a goal to move the score to 8-2 before both teams were held scoreless in the final frame allowing WC to come away with the clean sweep on the day.
Whittier returns to the pool today, March 21 as they take on Division II Sonoma State (8:00am) and Division I Brown (2:15pm) during the LMU Zumo Invite.
