California Baptist University
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges
BOTH ENDS OF THE SPECTRUM
2/2/2008 8:00:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
RIVERSIDE, Calif. ? Cydney Owen recorded her first hat trick of the year to help California Baptist defeat Claremont Mudd-Scripps 14-5, but the Lancers fell 11-4 to No. 11 Arizona State.
“We ask Cydney to do a lot,” said CBU head coach Jacob Medina. “We ask her to guard the top players and then go in and set. She can be an unsung hero for us at times. She draws a lot of attention and she puts things away when she has the chance.”
The Lancers (3-1) struggled in its home opener against the Sun Devils, but bounced back with a big win, and a big second half to grab a win over CMS.
In the opener, the Lancers got solo goals from Chelsea Gentry, Corrie Stuursma, Collette Brown and Ashleigh Wheeler.
Kelly Phelps led all scorers with three goals for Arizona State. The Sun Devils scored four goals each in the first and second quarters to take an 8-0 lead at the half. The Lancers out scored ASU in the third quarter as both Gentry's and Stuursma's goals came in the third. Brown's and Wheeler's goals helped CBU out score ASU 4-3 in the second half.
Julie Abendschein recorded 15 saves in the loss.
“The game with Arizona State was the one we needed to have,” said CBU Medina. “They're definitely a top tier program. I thought in the first quarter just a couple of things didn't go our way as far as shots. We beat them in the second quarter so we finished strong.”
In the nightcap, Owen put CBU on the board scoring the only goal of the first quarter. The Athenas answered to tie it at 1-1, in the second quarter, when Jennifer Ward ripped a shot to the back of net. Brittany Baurer answered just seconds later to give the Lancers a 2-1 lead, but Ward made it 2-2 less than 20 seconds later.
After falling behind 3-2, Stuursma and Owen scored back-to-back goals to take a 4-3 lead with 1:17 left in the half. CMS answered again with 58 seconds left to tie it at 4-4. Wheeler gave Lancers a 5-4 lead just 18 seconds before halftime.
CBU took it to the Athenas in the third quarter scoring the first five goals of the quarter, until CMS scored its only goal of the third with 48 seconds left to make it 10-5. Abendschein kept it from being 10-6 when she blocked a five-meter shot after a penalty was called at the buzzer.
The Lancers added four more in the fourth to outscore CMS 9-1 in the second half.
“It's always hard to transition to another game after playing such a hard fought game like we had against ASU,” said Medina. “We were putting a lot into it to just to stay with them. CMS came out strong, but in the second half we took control. Our speed in depth played a big key there.”
The Lancers will now head to La Jolla, Calif., to play in the Triton Tourney, Feb. 9-10.
