The 2024 Women's Water Polo Season Ends in Santa Clara

Saturday, April 27

Santa Clara, CA

12 PM

California Baptist University

Azusa Pacific University

Azusa Pacific

California Baptist

Photo by: Ryley Collom

The 2024 Women's Water Polo Season Ends in Santa Clara

4/27/2024 10:55:00 PM | Women's Water Polo

Box Score

By: Ryley Collom, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications & Digital Media

SANTA CLARA--- The 2024 women's water polo season ended for California Baptist on Saturday afternoon as the Lancers fell in a heartbreaker to Azusa Pacific in the 5th Place Match of the Golden Coast Conference.

The Cougars took the match 12-11 after converting a goal in the final minute of regulation to complete a fourth-quarter comeback and take the fifth-place title. CBU finishes the season 11-19 overall and 3-4 in conference play.

The match began again as a defensive struggle between the two programs, with both teams only mustering nine goals total at the half. CBU would hold a 5-4 lead after 16 minutes, with goals scored by five players in the first half. One of the first-half goals came courtesy of goalie Tyanna Schneider, who laced one as the buzzer sounded into halftime for her fourth score of the season.

CBU would come out of the halftime break on a 4-1 run, with all four scores coming from Kyra Kahahawai and Celeste Almendariz, the Lancers leading scorers from the quarterfinal match. Almendariz netted her third goal of the match at the end of the third quarter to give CBU a 9-8 lead heading into the final frame.

Delilah Moreno and Adrianna Wong would each register goals to begin the fourth period to give CBU its largest lead of the match at 11-8 with 5:51 remaining. From that point, it would be all APU as the Cougars would finish the match on a 4-0 run, including the game-winning goal at 38 seconds, to claim the final score of 12-11 over CBU.

Almendariz and Kahahawai each earned themselves hat tricks for the second straight tournament game, with Kahahawai adding in some defensive boost with two steals as well. The two scored 13 of the team's 20 goals this weekend and capped off phenomenal seasons. Kahahawai finishes the season with 34 goals, 23 assists, and a team-leading 15 field blocks. Almendariz finished as the team's second-leading goal scorer with 38 and set the single-season NCAA-era program record with 79 drawn exclusions.

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Emaly Hutton led the team this season with 52 goals to earn her 2nd-Team All-GCC and was second on the team with 28 assists. Cayleigh Carter was the assist leader for CBU with 31, while Tyanna Schneider capped off a banner year in goal for the Lancers. Schneider recorded 255 saves in her sophomore campaign and led the team with 48 steals. Schneider's 255 saves led the entire conference, with no other goalie coming with 20 saves of her number. Schneider is 6th all-time in single-season saves for the Lancers.