Redemption Over Rival

Thursday, April 23

Stockton, CA

3:00 PM

California Baptist University

APU

Photo by: Andrew Shortall

4/23/2015 4:14:00 PM | Women's Water Polo

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

STOCKTON, Calif. – Revenge was at the forefront of California Baptist University's mind coming into its Golden Coast Conference Tournament opener with conference-rival Azusa Pacific Thursday afternoon.

While the first meeting between the rivals was decided by just one goal, the Lancers' desire for redemption fueled them to a 17-8 victory at University of Pacific. It was a route from the get-go, with CBU scoring 10-straight goals to take a big early lead it never came close to relinquishing. Courtney Menard had a huge part in the win, scoring three of the Lancers' first four goals.

"Once we saw shots fall early, that really gave our team a lot of confidence," Coach Jonathan Miller said. "We had balance scoring, which is nice. When you have a first quarter like that, it just gives you that much momentum for the rest of the game."

The win guarantees the Lancers will have their best conference finish ever, in their second season as a member of the GCC. They finished fifth in their first year in the conference in 2014.

After relying on Hannah Evans, the conference-leading scorer, in the regular season, CBU showed off its shooting threat in its postseason opener. Evans and Valerie Spezzaferri tied for the game-high in goals, with four each, while Menard also had her hat trick. Mallory Montano, Paizlee Dreyer and Jessica Castellano had two goals each.

"We were really focused," Menard said. "We wanted to beat them because we knew we could, we just didn't play well enough the first time around. We had high energy."

Meghan Rowland also got out to a quick start for the Lancers, blocking seven shots in the first 16 minutes. She finished with nine saves overall in the cage.

Menard provided the early spark that turned into an uncontrollable blaze for the Lancers. After both teams exchanged goals to start the game, Menard rang home three-straight goals to give CBU a 4-1 lead. Goals from Spezzaferri, Dreyer and Montano helped the Lancers cruise to a 7-1 lead in the first quarter.

"Especially in the first quarter, she was huge coming up with those shots and her defense at two-meter was outstanding the whole game," Miller said. "She was able to match up one-on-one and take away one of their biggest threats. She played a great game on both ends and was a huge reason we had the start that we did."

With a giant first-quarter complete, CBU continued its stellar play with a 4-0 run to open the second. Dreyer scored first 1:45 in before Spezzaferri cashed in two straight. Evans scored her second goal about halfway through the quarter to give CBU a comfortable 11-1 cushion.

The Cougars scored consecutive goals to start the second half, but Montano stopped the run with a goal. After another APU tally, the Lancers rattled off another 3-0 run for a 15-5 lead, with Spezzaferri scoring for the fourth time, Evans notching her hat trick and Castellano scoring her first.

APU's best run pulled it within seven, 15-7, with 4:39 to play. Evans ended the spurt with her final goal and Castellano capped the scoring with nine seconds left.

"The fact we lost to them earlier helped to focus us, the fact it was a school rival was part of it, but we thought we let one slip and we didn't play well against them the first time," Miller said. "We wanted the chance to redeem ourselves."

CBU will face top-seeded San Diego State, the 18^th-ranked team in the NCAA, in Friday's semifinal at 3 p.m. Loyola Marymount and Pacific make up the other half of the final four teams, with their game taking place at 1:30 p.m. Friday. The Lancers battled the Aztecs in an 11-9 loss earlier in the year.

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