Breaking the Record

Saturday, February 6

Whittier, Calif.

10:30 AM

California Baptist University

Occidental

Photo by: Jacob Gonzalez

2/6/2016 7:16:00 PM | Women's Water Polo

By: Jake Zalesky, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

WHITTIER, Calif. — In the beginning of the season, two-meter senior Hannah Evans was just 29 goals away from becoming California Baptist University women's water polo record goal scorer, with Holly Curran holding the record at 286 goals.

With 22 goals scored this season heading into Saturday's competition, Evans needed only seven more to break the record. She got what she was looking for, scoring seven goals to become CBU's all-time leading goal scorer at 287 goals — and there's still a lot of goals to be scored in her career.

Evans' efforts helped CBU dominate its opponents, beating Occidental 16-3 and Pomona-Pitzer 13-4.

"She's had a tremendous career as a Lancer and to do something like that, with three quarters of a season still left to play, speaks volumes about her character and talent," head coach Jon Miller said about Evans. "She does a great job of handling the pressure and has been the focal point of the offense for three years now."

The 2015 national player of the year was unaware of her goal tally and did not know if she broke the record.

"I wasn't sure what the count was but I found out it was after the second game [against Pomona-Pitzer scoring two goals] that I broke it," said Evans, who quickly credits her teammates for her success. "I want to thank my team for working so hard around the perimeter to open up opportunities for myself and others."

Not only did Evans score seven goals on the day, she added two assists, two steals and five drawn ejections. Annie Eubanks chipped in three goals, made two steals and drew one ejection, while Laura Kocsis ended the day with four goals and one steal. Valerie Spezzaferri finished with three goals, one assist, two steals and two drawn ejections.

"It was a great day for us, we did everything we needed to do," Miller said. "We played great defensively. We started a little sluggish against Occidental, but when we found our groove, we never looked back."

Goaltenders Meghan Rowland and Lina Medeiros split the games and put up excellent efforts between the sticks collecting 11 blocks, three steals and three assists between the two.

In the game against Occidental, there were 10 different goal scorers, while nine different goal scorers helped lift CBU over Pomona-Pitzer. Keeping the Princeton tournament in mind, which is less that a week away, Coach Miller decided to rest the starters and gave opportunities to the second string.

The second string put on encouraging performances and showed the promising future CBU women's water polo has in coming years.

On Feb. 12-13, the Lancers will compete against three top-ranked water polo programs including No. 14 Princeton University, No. 21 Harvard University and No. 25 Iona College.

"Getting an early chance to play Princeton is exactly what we want and we hope to have a good showing in the tournament," Miller said.

There will be a live feed for the games in Princeton from the Ivy League Digital network.

"We're excited to play against nationally-ranked teams," Evans said. "East coast water polo is a bit more physical and they will have the home advantage so it will be a tough challenge."