Box Score Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
ORANGE, Calif. – The Whittier College Women's Water Polo team faced a tough task Saturday morning at the Allred Olympic Pool coming from five down to tie things up only to fall 12-11 to Chapman University.
Whittier is now 7-15, 5-6 SCIAC but remain in the hunt for a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Post Season Berth as they sit 5th in the SCIAC Standings.
Chapman put together an early 3-0 run to start the game off but saw that lead diminish as Anastacia Gonzalez (Montebello, Calif.) and Veronica Ramirez (La Habra, Calif.) would go back to back to cut the deficit to one.
The Panthers tacked on another to end the first quarter and that carried momentum into the second as CU would add another three to go on top 7-2. Kaitlin Vera (Fullerton, Calif.) and Kendyl Riley (Huntington Beach, Calif.) would stop the run with two of their own but with under two minutes to play, Chapman would register another two to go on top 9-4 at the break.
The third quarter was all Whittier shutting out the Panthers, while adding five unanswered that tied the game up at 9-9. During the spurt, Gonzalez added two and was joined by Bianca Vera (Los Angeles, Calif.), Amelia Gregorio (Aventura, FL), and Lindsay Shoaff (Costa Mesa, Calif.).
Chapman though was able to respond in the fourth stringing together three straight to start off the stanza. Gonzalez and Riley were able to add two to end the quarter but the run would end there allowing CU to pull off the home win.
Noa Cravens (Laie, HI) played all 32:00 minutes collecting five saves and a steal. Gonzalez led the offense with four goals and an assist, while adding three steals. Vera tacked on a goal with four steals and Shoaff tallied a goal, an assist and two steals.
Whittier outshot Chapman 34-30 and was 2-for-7 on power play opportunities.
Whittier returns to the pool this Wednesday, April 11 when they travel to take on the University of Redlands beginning at 7:00pm.
