California Baptist University
Fresno Pacific
TWICE AS FUN
4/19/2009 1:45:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
RIVERSIDE, Calif. ? The NAIA Women's Water Polo Invitational title will remain in Riverside another year after California Baptist University downed Concordia 13-7 in the championship game. For the second straight year the Lancers (21-18) took down the Eagles, but this year it was almost a totally different team for CBU. The Lancers also downed Fresno Pacific 11-6 in an earlier game.
Jennifer Grutz led all scorers with seven goals total with three against Concordia and two against Fresno Pacific.
Chelsea Gentry, Rachel Esau, Melissa Shepardson and Collette Brown all scored two goals against the Eagles while Kylie Chevalier had one. Camryn Rogers also came up with 14 saves.
The Lancers scored the first three goals of the game as Gentry, Grutz and Brown gave CBU a 3-0 lead before the Eagles got on the board with 3:08 left in the first. Grutz put CBU up 4-1 with 1:58 left in the first and it stayed that way into the half.
After scoring just five goals in the first half, the two teams combined to score 15 in the second half. After the Eagles got within two at 4-2 with 6:30 left in the third, the Lancers used a 4-0 run to close out the third. Esau, Gentry, Chevalier and Brown all scored consecutive goals to put CBU up 8-2 heading into the fourth. Ashleigh Rood and Grutz increased the run to 6-0 and gave CBU a 10-2 lead with 4:53 left to play. The two traded goals from there on out.
Four Lancers scored a pair of goals each against Fresno Pacific as Grutz, Esau, Rood and Brown eight of CBU's 11 goals. Grutz, Esau and Rood scored all of their goals in the second half while Brown scored one each in the first and second quarters.
Gentry also had three steals and an assist while Grutz had two. Rood pushed her school record for steals in a single season to 92 with one against the Sunbirds. Sarah Hunter also chipped in with four steals
CBU opened the game with three straight goals from Brown, Chevalier and Gentry. The Sunbirds answered with 1:48 left in the first to make it 3-1 heading into the second. Brown scored her second goal with 4:08 left in the half on a 6-on-5 goal but Fresno Pacific answered with back-to-back goals to make it 4-3 at intermission.
The Lancers blew the game wide open with a 4-0 third that featured two goals from Rood and a goal each from Grutz and Strickland to put the Lancers on top at 8-3. The Lancers pushed it to 9-3 on another Grutz goal before FPU ended the Lancers' five-goal run with 2:21 left to play. That goal was only a band aid to CBU's scoring barrage as the Lancers added two more on consecutive goals from Esau.
The Lancers were 3-for-5 on 6-on-5 attempts and held the Sunbirds to just 1-for-10. CBU was 11-for-27 from the field.
