California Baptist University
Fresno Pacific
Senior Day Success
4/13/2014 4:06:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — In their final two home games of the season and after recognizing five seniors graduating this May, the California Baptist University Lancers showed they were ready to play and grabbed victories over Fresno Pacific (11-4) and Cal State San Bernardino (21-9).
With the wins today, the Lancers improve to a 10-game winning streak and move to 20-9 on the season and 3-2 in the Golden Coast Conference with the conference victory over FPU. The Sunbirds came to a split on the day after beating the Coyotes in overtime (9-4), bringing their record to 8-21 and 0-6 in the GCC, while the Coyotes fall to 3-20 overall.
The Lancers battled back and forth in the early game against the Sunbirds, holding a 4-3 lead after the first quarter. Senior Molly Gritchen put the first goal on the board a minute and a half into the game off of an exclusion by the Sunbirds. FPU countered with two goals, but fellow senior Morgan Barrows tied it up with a goal from five meters out.
Laura Kocsis and Mallory Montano found opportunities to score late in the first quarter, but the Sunbirds managed to put one more past Meghan Rowland in the goal for the Lancers before the quarter came to a close with the Lancers leading 4-3.
Montano found an early opportunity in the second quarter to give CBU the 5-3 lead. FPU bounced back a minute later, but the quarter remained in the hands of the defense until under two minutes were left in the half. Christina Young fired in a goal to bring the Lancers back up by two before the quarter ended.
With the score 6-4 heading into the second half, Kocsis grabbed her second goal on the day with an assist by Alyssa Birch and put the Lancers up 7-4. The defense managed the rest of the game and wouldn't allow another Sunbird goal for the remaining time.
The Lancers weren't done scoring, however, as Gritchen and Young grabbed their second goals of the game. Young's came just three seconds before the final third quarter buzzer to put the Lancers in front 9-4 heading into the fourth quarter.
The fourth remained in the hands of the defense until just over two minutes were left in the game when Kocsis capitalized on a six-on-five opportunity for her 65th goal of the year. Kocsis wasn't done, though, and shot one past the Sunbirds' goalie with less than a minute left in the game, bringing the final score to 11-4.
Rowland finished the game with seven saves in the cage, helping her team to their perfect 15-0 record against the Sunbirds since 2008.
In the nightcap, offense started early and kept both teams on their toes with the score going back and forth throughout the first quarter, but by the end of the game, 12 Lancers had at least one goal on the board.
Montano started the game off with the first goal, just one minute into the game. The Coyotes countered with two goals, but Samantha Banks and Kocsis found scoring opportunities late in the quarter to get the Lancers back on top at 4-2.
Just before the buzzer rang, CSUSB slipped one past Lina Medeiros in the goal for the Lancers, bringing the score to 4-3 heading into the second.
Kocsis grabbed her final goal of the day--her 68th on the season--in the start of the second quarter. After a Coyote goal, Young had back-to-back scoring drives, followed by Gritchen and Tryon to advance the Lancers to a 9-5 lead at halftime.
“As much as the first game was for the seniors, we wanted the second game to be for the underclassmen,” said head coach Jonathan Miller. “[The seniors] did a nice job doing their part early in the first half and the freshman did great coming into the second half.”
The Coyotes capitalized first in the second half, but the Lancers went on an eight-goal streak and ended the quarter 17-6. Evans started the streak followed by back-to-back goals by Birch, one from Tryon, another from Birch, two from Gritchen, and one from freshman Kaitlyn Persky.
The fourth quarter wasn't much different with the Lancers going on a streak early on. Freshman Paizlee Dreyer won the sprint for CBU and turned around and shot one to the back of the cage less than a minute into the final quarter. Raine Paul and Evans both added to the Lancers' three goals scored in under two minutes.
The Coyotes bounced back with three goals but Jessica Castellano found her scoring opportunity with 25 seconds left on the clock to give the Lancers the 21-9 final score.
Medeiros tallied six saves in the game and Leticia Perez added two in the fourth quarter.
“It was nice to have that kind of game be the last game at home for the year,” added Miller.
The Lancers head to conference opponent Santa Clara University for their final regular season game before the GCC Tournament, hosted by Loyola Marymount on April 24-26.
