Feeling At Home

Saturday, March 12

Riverside, Calif.

10:30 AM

California Baptist University

CMS

Photo by: Nyck Yashiro

3/12/2016 8:35:00 PM | Women's Water Polo

By: Jake Zalesky, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

CMS Box Score
George Washington Box Score

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – California Baptist University women's water polo team remains undefeated at home for the season after a stellar weekend hosting the Lancer Invitational.

"[A 4-0 weekend] is important for us at this point," Coach Jon Miller said. "I told the girls that you can't take any wins for granted so you have to come out and play."

That they did. The Lancers — who beat La Verne and Iona the day before — went on an offensive rampage, scoring 27 goals in two games to down Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 13-1 and George Washington 14-5. CBU improves to 15-5 on the year with the two wins.

No. 22-ranked CBU has now won nine consecutive games and is showing it is not a team to take lightly. While both wins had double-digit margins, the games could not have been more different from one another.

In the first match against the Athenas, it took a team effort to get an offensive rhythm that led to 13 goals. Nine different Lancers scored in the game with Paizlee Dreyer, Hannah Evans and Laura Kocsis all scoring two goals each.

Against the George Washington, it was Valerie Spezzaferri and Hannah Evans who ran the show as they both scored five goals in the 14-5 win. Spezzaferri scored all five goals in the first half as she went on an offensive rampage against the Colonials.

"[Valerie] has been doing a great job these last two weeks on offense and defense, she's really stepped it up for us," Miller said.

Spezzaferri isn't one to take all the credit, though.

"It was a huge team effort," Spezzaferri said humbly. "We were all on the same page tonight and we knew we were going to come out strong. We really clicked tonight."

Two-meter Evans' seven goals between both games was business as usual for the Menifee native, who continues to rack up the goals for CBU.

"We just wanted to come out and defend our home pool," Evans said. "Everyone really moved the ball around well today and we were motivated to stay undefeated."

As impressive as the Lancers were on offense, the defensive side was equally impactful, shutting down all opponents that came their way. Goaltender Lina Medeiros played against CMS and earned six saves as a forced to be reckoned with between the sticks. Meghan Rowland got the game against the Colonials and put up seven saves on the day, including crucial saves to keep the Lancers in the lead.

"It's a big thing to be able to grab four wins this weekend to build the momentum going into conference play," Miller said.

CBU heads to Irvine, Calif., Wednesday afternoon to take on Concordia University of Irvine in the Lancers' first Golden Coast Conference match of the season.

"It's really exciting that conference play is here," stated Evans. "Everyone is looking forward to playing in games that move us towards our goal in a conference championship."