Photos by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
CLAREMONT, Calif. – The Whittier College women's water polo team put an exclamation point on an incredible weekend for Poet athletics by capturing the program's first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) title with an 8-7 victory over Pomona-Pitzer.
With the win, Whittier improves its record to 21-14, 9-2 SCIAC and will represent the SCIAC in an NCAA Play-In Game this weekend as they take on UC San Diego on Saturday, May 2 at Canyonview Aquatic Center. Pomona-Pitzer, who came in undefeated in the SCIAC, saw their 10-game winning streak snapped as Director of Aquatics Justin Pudwill earned his second SCIAC Championship Title this year and his third overall winning with the men's water polo team back in the fall.
The Sagehens who have won the SCIAC Title the last three years fell in front of their home crowd after getting off to a slow start at Haldeman Pool.
Isabella Gorrocino (East Los Angeles, Calif.) had the key stretch of the game early on, as she scored twice in the final minute of the first quarter to put the Poets ahead 4-1, after Alyssa Woodward scored for the Sagehens at the 1:16 mark to cut the deficit to 2-1. Zyania Morales (Commerce, Calif.) and Cynthia Castillo (Los Angeles, Calif.) scored in the opening four minutes to give Whittier an early 2-0 lead.
The second quarter saw Pomona-Pitzer's Morgan McCracken score twice, but was answered each time by Castillo, who finished off her hat trick at the 1:19 mark to give the Poets a 6-3 lead at the break.
A quick exchange of goals midway through the third saw Mahalia Prater-Fahey score for the Sagehens at the 4:06 mark, Morales answering 16 seconds later, and Sallie Walecka converting for Pomona-Pitzer 18 seconds after that to make the Whittier lead 7-5 with 3:32 left in the third.
The Poets would not score again, but Pomona-Pitzer was unable to get any closer than 7-5 until Woodward scored on a five meter penalty shot with just 1:26 to go. The Sagehens earned steals twice on the next two possessions, the second with just 10 seconds left, but Whittier answered back with steals of their own both times, the last coming on an attempted dump-in pass with one second left that sealed the victory.
Caitlin Bronzan (Brentwood, Calif.) finished with eight saves for Whittier, including a key one from in close on a Pomona-Pitzer transition attempt with just under four minutes remaining.
The two teams will officially be SCIAC Co-Champions, due to the conference system of combining regular season and tournament results. Pomona-Pitzer came into the tournament with eight points (8-0) and Whittier had six (6-2). The Poets received 10 points for winning the tournament, and the Sagehens earned eight for the runner-up finish, giving both teams 16. The tiebreaker for representing the SCIAC in NCAA Tournament play is the higher tournament finish, which the Poets earned with their win in Sunday's finals.
