Women’s Collegiate Water Polo Tournament Roundup

Following are recaps of the various collegiate water polo tournaments happening across the United States this weekend.

CWPA Eastern Championships, Round 1
ANN ARBOR, Michigan, April 26. FIRST-round action in the Collegiate Water Polo Association has taken place, with four matches determining which four teams would face Indiana, Princeton, Hartwick and Michigan–the top four seeds–later today.

Bucknell vs. Mercyhurst
The Bucknell Bisons defeated the Mercyhurst Lakers 10-3 in the opening match of the tournament and won the right to face top-seeded Indiana (No. 15 nationally). This was the fourth contest between the two squads this year; Bucknell prevailed in all three previous contests (14-5, 14-6 and 9-4).

Bucknell was led by player of the game Tara Murao, Hannah Sunday and Emily Nowlin, each of whom contributed two goals apiece to the winning cause. Scoring began just 70 seconds into the match, thanks to an exclusion by Mercyhurst's Cailin Jope. Stephanie Ovalle cashed in 18 seconds later for the 1-0 lead. The margin grew to 3-1 by the end of the first period with goals by Julianne Valdes and Sayeh Bozorghadad for the Bisons; Jope shot a goal with 2:09 left in the first quarter to break through for the Lakers. Murao, Mercyhurst's Lisette Calderon and Bucknell's Krystle Morgan traded goals to bring the halftime score to 5-2. Sunday and Nowlin scored their two goals in the second half, along with Murao's second, to give the Bison five goals in the second half to give Bucknell the 10-3 win. Calderon broke a 16:30 scoring drought in the fourth quarter for Mercyhurst's only goal of the match.

Mercyhurst will next face Connecticut College tomorrow (Saturday) at noon.

George Washington vs. Gannon
Bringing a one-goal lead (7-6) into the fourth quarter, the George Washington Colonials exploded for six goals and a 13-7 victory over the Gannon University Golden Knights. George Washington will next face Princeton tonight, while Gannon will meet Notre Dame tomorrow afternoon.

Gannon enjoyed leads of 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 in the first half, and it appeared that they were ready to upset George Washington. Goals went back and forth as Bailey Gadd scored the first Gannon goal with 2:52 gone in the first period, followed by George Washington's Meagan Moreland, Gannon's Shanen Lazenby, player of the game Meagan Bolley for George Washington and Gannon's Janelle McDaniels. Only one goal was scored by each team in the second quarter–Lazenby's second for Gannon and Allison Littlejohn for the Colonials for a 4-3 Gannon lead at the half. George Washington tied it up with just 13 seconds gone in the third quarter, and the tide began to turn for the Colonials. They scored four goals in the third quarter and six in the final frame to pull out the 13-7 victory.

Erin Donoghue and Brolley scored four goals apiece for the Colonials, with Moreland adding two. Lazenby was the only multiple goal scorer for the Golden Knights Chandler Vilander had nine saves for George Washington, and Janelle Bartman had 12 for Gannon.

Harvard vs. Notre Dame
Harvard's Crimson squad scored a convincing 15-4 victory over the Notre Dame College Falcons, thanks to Player of the Game Charlotte Hendrix's four goals. Harvard will meet Hartwick later tonight, and Notre Dame will face Gannon tomorrow.

Harvard sealed the game in the first period, scoring seven goals in the first eight minutes of play to Notre Dame's single shot. Elise Molnar scored twice (once on a six-on-five chance), with Kalina Grabb, Jelena Cyr, Shayna Price and Yoshi Andersen also finding the back of the net. Elena Williams scored the first of her two goals for the Falcons. Notre Dame was held scoreless in the second and fourth quarters; the rest of the scoring was done in the third period with Williams' second goal and single successful efforts from Kanoe Lyons and Gina-Bella Mata'afa. Harvard's Aisha Price and Victoria Frager brought the Crimson lead to 9-1 at the half. Harvard had a single goal in the third frame, and really put the game away with a five-goal fourth quarter.

Ariel Dukes earned two saves for Harvard, and Julie Vanderpool saved three for Notre Dame.

Brown vs. Connecticut College
The Brown Bears used a 5-1 first period to overpower the Connecticut College Camels, 17-6. The Bears were led by Player of the Game Madison Pepper, who scored a hat trick in the first period on her way to a four-goal game. Brown will face Michigan tonight, and Connecticut will match up with Mercyhurst tomorrow.

Pepper scored just 14 seconds into the contest and added her second at the 4:58 mark. Her third goal came with 1:28 left on the clock. Olivia Santiago and Sarah Shin also scored for the Bears. Nicky Jasbon scored with 2:28 left to get the Camels on the board. Katharine Booher scored two goals for Brown in the second period, with Connecticut's Kate Jacobson scoring in between. Jasbon and Brown's Victoria Perrotti also scored to make it 8-3 at halftime. Connecticut was held scoreless in the third period as four goals hit the back of the net for Brown, courtesy of Pepper, Santiago, Malaika Drebin and Sarah Presant. There were five more goals for Brown in the final frame, and Connecticut shot three into the net for the final 17-6 tally.

Besides Pepper, Brown received multiple-goal efforts from Rebecca Zak, Booker, Santiago and Emily Klein–each of whom scored two goals. Jasbon and Sam Pierce collected two goals each for Connecticut. Sarah Shinn earned four saves for Brown; in a joint effort, Ashley Amey (5) and Pamela Lovejoy (2) had seven saves for Connecticut.

Western Water Polo Association Tournament, First Round
SANTA CLARA, California, April 26. THE Sullivan Aquatics Center on the grounds of Santa Clara University is serving as the host venue for the Western Water Polo Association Championships this weekend. UC San Diego, Colorado State, Loyola Marymount and Santa Clara wound up with wins in their first-round matches. Tournament seedings are used.

No. 1 UC San Diego 14, No. 8 Cal State San Bernardino 1
The top-seeded UC San Diego Tritons opened up with an 5-0 first period lead and was up 8-0 before Cal State San Bernardino's Misty Vu scored the only goal of the match for the Coyotes.

Melissa Bartow started the scoring off with two goals in the first minute of play. She added two more goals in the third period and one in the fourth for a five-goal total. Julia Kirkland contributed a hat trick with two goals in the second period and one in the first. Leah Gonzalez added two goals, with single goals coming from Jolene Guiliana, Lauren Kistler, Allison Delgado and Alexis Wieseler.

Tomorrow, UC San Diego will face Colorado State in the winner's bracket, while Cal State San Bernardino will take on Sonoma State.

No. 4 Colorado State 9, No. 5 Sonoma State 8
The Colorado State Rams, seeded fourth in the WWPA Tournament, moves on to the winner's bracket and will face UC San Diego tomorrow with their 9-8 victory over the Sonoma State Seawolves. Sonoma State will take on Cal State Bakersfield tomorrow in their next round.

Each team scored twice in the first period–Colorado State's Kelcy Barott and Kelsey Carrigan, plus Sonoma State's Natalie Del Carlo and Jessica Stansfield. The Rams put four goals in the next in the second period–two from Barott plus single efforts from Shelby Schaefer and Stephanie Weed. Sonoma State's Adrienne Bisharat collected her two goals in the second frame, giving Colorado State a 6-4 advantage at the half. Schaefer and Stansfield were the only goal scorers in the third period. Sonoma State valiantly tried a comeback; Lindsay Rangel scored with 51 seconds left to bring the score to 9-8, and a last-second shot was foiled by Michelle Slagle.

No. 2 Loyola Marymount 14, No. 7 Cal State East Bay 8
The Loyola Marymount Lions (LMU) leaped out to a 4-0 lead and never looked back as they defeated the Cal State East Bay Pioneers 14-8. LMU will face Santa Clara in the winner's bracket tomorrow, with Cal State East Bay going up against Cal State Monterey Bay.

LMU's Ivana Castro contributed four goals to the Lions' cause, with Mackenzie Beck and Laura Lopez adding hat tricks. Beck, Lopez, Ivona Castro and Alexandra Honny enabled LMU to go out to that 4-0 first period lead, holding East Bay scoreless. Castro added two goals in the second, along with Lopez and Beck. Claire Pierce put in a hat trick in the second period for the Pioneers, with Sara Hudyn adding one. East Bay was again held scoreless in the third period while the Lions put five shots in the net courtesy of Castro, Beck, Megan Linder, Jessica Morelos and Erin Byrne. In the fourth period, East Bay scoured four times with goals from Hudyn, Pierce, Alison Zell and Kate McAfee; LMU was held to just one Lopez goal. Marrina Nation saved six shots for East Bay, and Claire Wright saved four for LMU.

No. 3 Santa Clara 8, No. 6 Cal State Monterey Bay 5
As with the Loyola Marymount game, the Santa Clara Broncos–who will face LMU in the next round–jumped out to a 4-0 lead and then held on for an 8-5 victory over the Cal State Monterey Bay Otters. Monterey Bay will take on Cal State East Bay tomorrow in the losers bracket.

Ella Surber scored twice for the Broncos, with other first-period goals coming from Elizabeth Anderson and Kaitlin Murphy. Monterey Bay's Julie Cooper put the only goal in the net for either side, bringing the halftime score to 4-1. Cooper added her second goal in the third period, and Hayley Burke and Jessica Laurence contributed goals as well. Alison Norris and Claire Eadington put goals in the back of the net for Santa Clara and the score tightened to a 6-4 Bronco advantage. Anderson's second goal in the fourth quarter put the game away for Santa Clara; Jackie Walters scored for the Otters, and Jamie Swartz earned a final Bronco goal with 59 seconds left in the match. Stephanie Clements saved four shots for Santa Clara; Paige Robinson earned 12 saves for Monterey Bay.

CWPA Eastern Championships, Second Round
ANN ARBOR, Michigan, April 26. THE top four seeds all won their first-round matches tonight in the CWPA Eastern Championships. Indiana, Hartwick, Princeton and Bucknell all move on to the tournament semifinals.

No. 1 Indiana 12, No. 8 Bucknell 3
Led by Player of the Game Shae Fournier's four goals, The Indiana Hoosiers defeated the Bucknell Bison 12-3. Indiana earned a 3-0 lead at the end of the first quarter with goals by Fournier, Rebecca Gerrity and Meghan Lappen. Just 61 seconds into the second quarter, Fournet put the second of her goals in the net to give Indiana a 4-0 lead. Bucknell's Mackenzie Ferry ended the Indiana shutout with a goal with 4:42 left in a man-up situation. The Hoosiers answered with goals from Colleen McNaught and two goals from Fournier to bring the score to 6-1 at the half.

Indiana continued scoring in the third period with goals from Gerrity and Candyce Schroeder. Julianne Valdes answered back on a 6-on-5 opportunity to give the Bisons a much-needed goal. Jakie Kohli and Fourner answered back to make the score 10-2 at the end of the third period. Hannah Sunday gave Bucknell a goal 20 seconds into the final stanza, but Indiana roared back with goals from Kohli and Katie Contreras.

Indiana will face archrival Michigan tomorrow in the semifinals, while Bucknell will face Brown.

No. 2 Princeton 16, No. 7 George Washington 3
Eastern defending champion Princeton eased into tournament play and made quick work of George Washington's Colonials, 16-3. Three Tigers–Diana Murphy, Pippa Temple and Saranna Soroka–shared Player of the Game honors and accounted for 10 of Princeton's 16 goals.

The Tigers pounced in the first quarter, scoring six goals while holding the Colonials scoreless. Tallies came from Molly McBee, Taylor Dunstan, Jessie Holechek, Murphy and Kelly Gross. George Washington finally got on the scoreboard early in the second period via Megan Brolley's 6-on-5 goal. Soroka answered with a hat trick, and Murphy added one for a four-goal period for Princeton. The score was 10-1 at the half.

Princeton continued the onslaught in the second half. Murphy, Holechek and Temple found the back of the net. George Washington's Erin Dickson closed out the third quarter to bring the score forward to 13-2 at the end of the third quarter. Meagan Moreland began the fourth period with a goal for Princeton, the last for the team. Princeton's Temple scored back-to-back goals and Camille Hooks ended the scoring with 3:46 left in the game.

Princeton will next face Hartwick tomorrow in semifinal action, and George Washington will face Harvard.

No. 3 Hartwick 20 vs. No. 6 Harvard 6
Jemma Dendy Young was just about all the Hartwick Hawks needed to defeat the Harvard Crimson. Dendy Young scored five goals and was named Player of the Game.

Hartwick had a 7-2 lead by the end of the first quarter, and they never leet up. They were ahead 10-3 at the half, 16-4 after the third quarter and ended with the 20-6 victory. Kamila Zakirova, Sami Capparelli and Kylie Traube gave the Hawks hat tricks. Kalina Grabb was the only Crimson player to score two goals; she was joined by SHayna Price, Charlotte Hendrix, Jelena Cyr and Yoshi Anderson as goal scorers. Michaela Davies and Haley Cox combined for 13 saves for Hartwick, and Ariel Dukes saved four shots for Harvard.

Hartwick will compete in semifinal action against Princeton, and Harvard will face George Washington.

No. 4 Michigan 11, NO. 5 Brown 7
In the closest of the four contests held in the second round, Michigan set up a Michigan-Indiana semifinal match with its 11-5 victory over the Brown Bears. Brown will meet up with Bucknell tomorrow.

Michigan built up a 6-0 lead with 2:12 left in the first period on three goals by Player of the Game Kiki Golden (who wound up the contest with five goals) and single goals from Lauren Colton, Kelsey Nolan and Hathaway Moore. Bears Liz Rosen and Sarah Presant answered with goals at 59 seconds and nine seconds left in the period, respectively. Brown began the second period with goals from Madison Pepper and Presant, closing the gap to 6-4. Nolan got her second tally to bring the score to 7-4. Olivia Santiago (Brown) and Golden (Michigan) traded goals to leave the score at 8-5 at the half.

Golden scored less than two minutes of the period (6:01), followed by a power-play goal from Brown's Emily McNamara. Michigan's Lauren Dudley found the back of the net, and Rosen hit her second goal with 56 seconds left to make the third-period score 10-7. Presley Pender scored the only goal of the fourth period for Michigan.

MPSF Conference Tournament Semifinals
BERKELEY, California, April 26. USC, Arizona State and UCLA earned victories in the semifinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Conference Championships.

No. 2 USC 21 vs. No. 7 Cal State Bakersfield 5
The USC Trojans gained both offensive and defensive strength in their match with the Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners and wound up with a commanding 21-5 victory.

Kaleigh Gilchrist led the way for the Trojans with five goals. Her fourth goal marked the 100th of her career. MOnica Vavic and Jayde Appel both earned hat tricks. USC took a 4-2 lead after the first period and was up 9-4 at halftime. They outscored Cal State Bakersfield 12-1 in the second half, including seven unanswered goals in the fourth quarter to close out the game. Janelle Shelby scored two goals for the Roadrunners, with Sam Shead, Jessica Browning and Amanda Nesbit putting single goals in the net. Flora Bolonyai recorded 10 saves for USC; Alex Bayer (9) and Chiyeko Morisaki (2) combined for 11 saves for Cal State Bakersfield.

No. 3 Arizona State 12 vs. No. 6 San Jose State 8
Arizona State scored four unanswered goals in the second period and three more in the beginning of the third period to defeat the San Jose State Spartans 12-8.The win guarantees the Sun Devils' highest MPSF tournament finish in school history.

The score was tied 2-2 at the end of the first period on Arizona State goals by Ao Gao and Abigail Kerth; Rae Lekness scored twice for San Jose State. Timi Molnar put the Spartans up 3-2 with 5:45 left in the second period. The Sun Devils then went to work. Anna Kertes, Shannon Haas and two goals from Alicia Brightwell brought the score to 6-3, ASU at the half; Haas' second goal and Brightwell's first two goals gave ASU a 9-3 lead. The Spartans' Rachel Henry stopped the scoring streak with her goal at 1:16 left in the period. Victoria Smith and Ao Gao both gave the Sun Devils goals with less than a minute left. Henry's second goal started the scoring in the fourth period. Brightwell claimed her third and fourth goals of the game; Molnar and Lekness closed the gap for San Jose State for the 12-8 final score.

E.B. Keene–an Arizona State freshman–earned 16 saves, bringing her career total to 344, just three shy of the team's single-season record. Maddie Reardon recorded five saves for San Jose State.

No. 4 UCLA 4, No. 5 Cal 3
Down 3-0 with 3:08 left in the second quarter, the UCLA Bruins rallied for a 4-3 victory over the California Golden Bears. The Bruins were led by Rachel Fattal's hat trick.

Ashley Young and Emily Csikos opened the scoring for Cal in the first period; Young's second goal gave Cal the 3-0 lead on a 6-on-5 opportunity. Fattal scored her first goal on a penalty shot, and Kodi Hill got an exclusion goal to get UCLA to within one goal at the half (3-2). The third period was scoreless. The Bruins' Fattal got a second power play in the third period to tie the score 3-3, and three minutes later got her hat trick and the 4-3 lead for UCLA. Cal was held scoreless for the last 19:08 of the game.

Sami Hill earned 11 saves for the Bruins; Savanna Smith recorded eight for the Golden Bears.

The Next Round
The top-seeded Stanford Cardinal enters the tournament tomorrow (Saturday) with a game against UCLA. Cal State Bakersfield will meet San Jose State, and Arizona State will face USC. California will meet the winner of the Cal State Bakersfield-San Jose State game on Sunday.

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