California Baptist University
UC Irvine
Even Split
1/26/2014 3:57:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--- The Lancers closed out the Santa Barbara Invite Saturday with a hard-fought loss against No. 7 UC Irvine, 19-4, and defeated the Roadrunners of Cal State Bakersfield, 8-7, to finish 2-2 overall at the invite.
The Lancers battled it out till the very end against the Roadrunners, who fall just outside the top-20 rankings in the NCAA. CBU posted three goals in the first quarter and maintained the lead into the third quarter, with the score eventually coming to a tie at 6-6 going into the fourth.
Hannah Evans scored her second goal of the game in the fourth quarter to put the Lancers up by two, leaving the defense to hold the Roadrunners to just one more goal before the final buzzer.
Laura Kocsis led the Lancer women with three goals in the match-up, while Christina Young produced two scores, along with Evans. Morgan Barrows also let one rip past CSU Bakersfield goalie Alex Bayer for the other Lancer goal.
Meghan Rowland recorded an impressive 12 saves and three steals to preserve the win against the Roadrunners.
“The girls kept composure the whole game and did what they needed to do to finish it out,” head coach Jonathan Miller said. “They battled hard—it was a really physical game from start to finish.”
The Lancers faced an offensively strong No. 7 Eagles, who had only just begun—with it being their first game of the season, and eventually left CBU to a 19-4 loss.
“They pressed us really hard early on and it was hard to get an offensive rhythm to catch back up,” Miller said.
Kocsis added two goals against the Eagles for a total of five on the day to help her team offensively in both games.
Young also contributed another goal for the Lancers, along with Alyssa Birch, who scored her first goal of the season.
“We have continued to improve each game and have a lot of good things to build on for next weekend at home,” added Miller.
CBU now stands at 2-4 on the season after the final day of the UCSB Invite. UCI opens the season with a 2-0 record after also defeating San Jose State, while CSUB dropped to 1-4 with the loss to CBU.
The Lancers host their first invite of the season Feb. 1 beginning at 9 a.m.
