California Baptist University
University of Michigan
Top-20 Tangle
2/22/2014 7:13:00 PM | Women's Water Polo
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. --- No. 19-ranked California Baptist University played great defense to hang with No. 20-ranked University of Michigan, but couldn't finish opportunities on the other side of the pool to fall 7-6 Saturday morning.
"We started a little slow on offense and battled to bring the score within one on different occasions, but struggled to finish shots," said head coach Jonathan Miller. "Overall the girls played well. Michigan is a good team, but we're used to scoring more goals than that."
Laura Kocsis netted three goals and three other Lancers scored one apiece: Hannah Evans, Jessica Castellano and Christina Young.
"Laura did a good job keeping us in it with some shots," said Miller. "We just couldn't finish consistently throughout the game."
Meghan Rowland held down the cage for CBU, registering eight saves and four of the Lancers' 16 steals on the day.
"I think we played consistently," said Miller. "Our defense was on. We held them to seven goals. If you can hold an opponent to seven goals, you think you can win. We got defensive stops throughout the game."
U-M opened the game with the first score, but CBU added back-to-back goals to hold a 2-1 lead. The lead didn't last long, however, as the Wolverines responded with two consecutive goals of their own, including one in the last few seconds of the quarter, and never trailed again.
Despite going into halftime trailing 4-2, the Lancers continued to battle to put the ball in the back of the cage, but remained behind an arm's length of two goals (5-3) heading into the final period.
The Lancers drew a total of 10 ejections, but could only capitalize on three of them, making it the "Achilles' heel" for CBU, according to Miller. Two of the 6-on-5 goals, however, came in the crucial last quarter to put the Lancers within one at 6-5.
U-M drew a penalty shot with just over five minutes left to play and finished the opportunity to go back in front by two at 7-5.
Even as time ticked off the clock, the Lancers were hungry for another goal and Kocsis gave them what they were looking for with just 17 seconds remaining. The junior utility player, who leads CBU with 31 goals on the season, sent an incredible back-handed shot from the outside to narrow the final score to 7-6.
"We knew it would be a tough two games against Indiana and Michigan," said Miller. "Both of them are good top-20 teams. The girls battled hard in a tough situation after traveling so far to play strong teams. It puts more pressure on you when you travel, especially playing good teams on the road."
The Lancers return back to California, but continue on the road as they open Golden Coast Conference action at San Diego State in a week on March 1 at 11:30 a.m.
"We got a taste of what we need to do down the road in conference," said Miller. "It was good preparation for the next month and a half for the GCC since our conference is tough. We learned a lot."
