California Baptist University
Villanova University
CBU Kicks Off the Wildcat Invite with Win over Villanova
2/6/2026 2:50:00 PM | Women's Water Polo
VILLANOVA, PA--- The California Baptist University women's water polo team kicked off the Wildcat Invite on Friday afternoon with an 18-15 victory over the host Villanova behind a balanced offensive attack. The win improves the Lancers' win streak to four straight games and is off to one of its best starts in program history at 6-2 overall.
The Wildcats would strike first in the match, but the Lancers' offense got it going soon after with a pair of quick goals from Emmie Ramirez and Georgia Eccles. CBU's offense put six in the back of the net in the first period, from six different goal scorers, as they led 6-3 after eight minutes. Villanova had two penalty opportunities that Tyanna Schneider would deny.
In the second period, the defenses for both teams made several key stops early as the offenses struggled to generate offense. Ramirez would be CBU's best source of offense in the period, scoring the first two goals of the frame for the Lancers. Madison Haworth and Julia Almendariz would both score later in the period, as CBU led 10-6 at the half.
The Wildcats made a furious comeback attempt in the third period, netting six goals to the Lancers' four, pulling within two goals as the quarter ended 14-12 in favor of CBU. The Lancers would quell the Villanova momentum early in the fourth period as they would quickly score three straight goals, including a power-play strike from Niya Bumbaca, to push the lead back to five and force a Villanova timeout. The Wildcats would once again make a comeback attempt down the stretch of the period, scoring three straight goals to bring the score to 17-15.
With the momentum beginning to shift back to the Wildcats, CBU would make back-to-back fantastic stands on defense that would result in a steal by Bella Raynes with 55 seconds remaining and a save from Schneider with 39 seconds. Raynes would score late to put the game out of reach as the Lancers would finalize the victory 18-15.
Ramirez and Madison Haworth would both wind up with hat tricks, led by Ramirez with four goals. CBU had 12 different goal scorers in the match, with Raynes the only other player with multiple goals, scoring two. Schneider and Raynes made phenomenal defensive plays all game long as CBU would win its 11th straight against the Wildcats in the all-time series.
NEXT: The Lancers will face #13 Princeton and #22 Wagner on day two of the Wildcats Invitational on Saturday, February 7, beginning at 7:45 AM PT in Villanova, PA.
