Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College Women's Water Polo team dropped two contests this week against the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) (11-6) and Claremont-M-S (11-7).

The Purple & Gold have now lost four straight and five of their last six as they drop to 6-13, 4-4 SCIAC.

Game 1 (Virginia Military Institute; L, 11-6)

Lindsay Shoaff (Costa Mesa, Calif.) got the scoring started on the Poets' opening possession getting fed by Bianca Vera (Los Angeles, Calif.).  VMI though countered with a mini-run with four in a row until Anastacia Gonzalez (Montebello, Calif.) would go back-to-back to pull WC within one.

Kendyl Riley (Huntington Beach, Calif.) evened things up to begin the second quarter as she was fed from Marina Daroca Bazan (Barcelona, Spain) at the 5:01 mark.  But right after that the Keydets would again make a push rattling off another six straight spanning into the third quarter moving the score to 10-4.  Kaitlin Vera (Fullerton, Calif.) would stop the run with 1:47 to play in the third and Amelia Gregorio (Aventura, FL) would tack on another to start the fourth, but that was the final offense generated as VMI would add another tally late in the game to secure the win.

Noa Cravens (Laie, HI) played all 32:00 minutes between the posts and totaled seven saves and two steals.  Whittier outshot VMI 32-30 and was 0-7 on man-up opportunities.         

Game 2 (Claremont-M-S; L, 11-7)

Whittier returned to Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play Wednesday night with a road match-up against Claremont-M-S and despite leading after the first quarter was unable to pull off the win as they fell 11-7.

After a quick tally from CMS to open up the scoring, Whittier put together a 3-0 spurt with goals from Gonzalez and Shoaff to go on top 3-1.  But this lead wouldn't hold as the Athenas would add a last second connection to end the frame before outscoring WC 3-0 in the second quarter to lead 5-3 at the break.

Shoaff pulled the Poets within one to start off the third quarter but again CMS would counter going back to back to extend their lead to three.  Veronica Ramirez (La Habra, Calif.) kept Whittier within striking distance with :20 seconds to play in the quarter and would add another in the fourth followed by an unassisted goal from Leimana Hassett (Lahaina, HI) but it wouldn't be enough to pull off the road win. 

Cravens again played all 32:00 between the posts and finished with four saves and four steals.  Whittier outshot the Athenas 21-17 and was again unable to convert a power play going 0-5.   

Whittier wraps up March competition as they travel this Saturday, March 31 to take on Pomona-Pitzer beginning at 11:00am.