Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – It was a rematch of the 2017 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Championship Game and for the second straight time the Sagehens have gotten the best of the Whittier College Women's Water Polo team as they rolled to the 20-7 victory at the Lillian Slade Aquatic Center.

The game was the SCIAC Opener for the Purple & Gold as they drop to 1-3, 0-1 SCIAC.

The Sagehens came in as the top ranked team within Division III and they showed their prowess on both ends of the pool.  They outscored WC 5-1 in the opening quarter and ended the game on a 6-1 spurt over the final eight minutes that proved the difference.

Whittier deadlocked the game two minutes in as Anastacia Gonzalez (Montebello, Calif.) converted a power-play opportunity.  But from there the Sagehens would rattle off five in a row that spanned into the second quarter as they would take a 6-1 lead.  Gonzalez answered again at the 5:44 mark that stopped the run and Kendyl Riley (Huntington Beach, Calif.) was on the end of a 1-2 from Marina Daroca Bazan (Barcelona, Spain) immediately after that cut the deficit in half.

Less than two minutes later Gonzalez completed the hat trick with an even goal that kept the margin at three but that's as close as Whittier would get as PP would add another two, which included a 5-meter with :35 seconds remaining in the half that moved the score to 9-4.

In the third, Lindsay Shoaff (Costa Mesa, Calif.) answered with her first of the game coming at the 6:00 mark but right afterwards PP would respond with four of the next five that opened the game up at 14-6.  The final tally in the frame coming from Gonzalez. 

Back-to-back man-up opportunities and an even connection to open the fourth for the Sagehens made it a double digit deficit.  Gonzalez tacked on her fifth of the game getting fed from Kaitlin Vera (Fullerton, Calif.) with 3:07 to play but the offensive spark would end as PP would wrap up the game on a 3-0 run.

Gonzalez finished 5-7 on shots with two steals.  In goal, Noa Cravens (Laie, HI) got the start and picked up the loss collecting three steals and three saves.  Leimana Hassett (Lahaina, HI) stepped in and was the back-up playing goalie for the first time in her career in the second half and also picked up three saves and two steals.

Whittier took 26 shots for the game and was a mere 2-11 on power-play opportunities.                

Whittier returns to non-conference action this weekend, March 2-3 as they take part in the Claremont Convergence.  They open with St. Francis (PA) (12:20pm) and Sonoma State (5:40pm) on Saturday before capping off the weekend with match-ups against Cal State Monterey Bay (10:20am) and UC San Diego (3:40pm).