California Baptist University
Redlands
FRESHMAN DEBUT
1/27/2008 8:00:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
REDLANDS, Calif. ? There's nothing like being in the pool in late January; at least that's the case for California Baptist's women's water polo team who opened its 2008 season with a pair of wins over Redlands and Whittier.
The Lancers (2-0), who were just glad to be finally playing games, had no problems handing the Bulldogs (0-2) a 9-4 loss and the College Poets (0-2) a 13-7 loss.
“We got exactly what we needed to out of these games,” said CBU first-year, head coach Jacob Medina. “It was great for us to finally be at game speed. You can only practice and scrimmage so much, but it really takes games to see what exactly you need to work on.”
Kylie Chevalier couldn't have had a better collegiate debut scoring a hat trick in each game for a total of six goals. The freshman, from Placentia, Calif., scored a goal in each of the first three quarters against Redlands, and scored one in the second quarter and two in the third against Whittier.
Corrie Stuursma and Whitney Shaw scored three goals on the day with all three of Stuursma's goals coming against Whittier. Shaw scored a solo goal against Redlands before ripping two against the College Poets.
“I was impressed with our depth today,” said Medina. “We could sub six in and not miss a thing. We were able to get so many transition goals because we were constantly getting girls in and out so quick.”
Julie Abendschein came up big in the net for the Lancers notching eight saves against Redlands and seven against Whittier.
“Julie played such a great game in goal for us,” said Medina. “She came up with some big stops and had a great block on a five-meter shot.”
In the opener, the Lancers fell behind, 1-0, in the first few minutes against Whittier, but used an explosive second quarter, in the midst of an 8-2 run, to take a commanding lead. CBU jumped out to a 3-1 lead on a single goal by Shaw and back-to-back goals by Stuursma. The Lancers went off in the second quarter as Chevalier and Owen made it 5-1 before Snodgrass, Stuursma and Shaw all scored solo goals to make it 8-3 at the half.
Brittney Baurer scored a single goal while Chevalier and Angie Rodriguez each scored a pair of goals in the second half.
In the second game, against Redlands, the Lancers climbed out to a 2-0 lead on back-to-back goals by Julie Snodgrass and held a 4-1 advantage at the end of the first on goals by Shaw and Chevalier. The Lancers pushed the lead to 5-2 at the half on a goal by Chevalier before making it 8-2 on goals by Ashleigh Wheeler, Chelsea Gentry and Chevalier.
Rachel Esay gave CBU its biggest lead of the contest, at 9-2, with a goal with 2:46 left to play.
The Lancers will open their home season, Saturday, when it hosts the first Lancer Invite of the year. CBU will play Arizona State at 12:30 p.m. and will take on Claremont Mudd-Scripps at 3:30 p.m.
