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Water polo goes 1-4 in tournament

Sophomore goalie Maria DeSantis climbs out of the water to block a shot from Occidental last Friday at Claremont College. The Leopards would succumb to the Tigers 5-2 in their first game of tournament play in the SCIAC championships. La Verne went on to lose three more and walk away with a lone victory against Whittier on Sunday. / photo by Jason Cooper
Sophomore goalie Maria DeSantis climbs out of the water to block a shot from Occidental last Friday at Claremont College. The Leopards would succumb to the Tigers 5-2 in their first game of tournament play in the SCIAC championships. La Verne went on to lose three more and walk away with a lone victory against Whittier on Sunday. / photo by Jason Cooper

by Reginald Miller
Staff Writer

The final curtain call of the season for the University of La Verne women’s water polo team took place last weekend as the Leopards competed in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) championship tournament at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

Sophomore utility Tandis Morgan said, “During the tournament I felt we played really strong and really smart.”

The Leopards faced each of their conference opponents, playing five games over the course of three days.

“As a team we wanted to win as many games as possible,” said sophomore driver Allison Alastuey. “We wanted to play hard and make sure that we didn’t mess up at any time, or any point, and see if we could play really good games.”

The Leopards’ record ended up 1-4 in the tournament, earning their sole victory, a 5-2 triumph over Whittier College, in their last game of the weekend.

“They [Poets] scored the first two, but as usual we came back in the second half really strong and we made our last goal in the last quarter,” said Alastuey.

Against Whittier, it was Morgan that led ULV’s scoring with three goals.

In the games prior to the finale, the Leopards dropped both Friday. First they lost to Occidental, 5-2, then they suffered a lopsided loss to the University of Redlands, the defending Division III National Champions, by the score of 10-2.

“I think that we came out in the first half and played some really good water polo,” said freshman utility player Jennifer Pacheco. “We had a few mental breakdowns in the second half and they [Occidental] capitalized on that and that was our downfall.”

Saturday’s games proved fateful as well. La Verne was defeated twice. The Leopards fell 7-4 to Claremont and 11-9 in a high-scoring affair with Pomona-Pitzer.

“I definitely would say that we are a never-say-die team,” said head coach Tim Hugar. “When we were down going into the fourth quarter in lots of games we never rolled over, which is a good sign.”

Against CMS, scoring two goals apiece for the Leopards were sophomores Andrea Griffith and Morgan. Against Pomona-Pitzer, in which every Leopard starter scored, Pacheco led the team with three goals.

“Pomona was a tough loss,” said freshman driver Emily Tollefson. “We definitely gave them a tough game. Erase the second quarter and we win 8-7.”

La Verne’s second-year program has a lot to be proud of. It took the Leopards one week to break the top 10 in the Division III USA Water Polo polls. Going into last weekend’s tournament, ULV had steadily climbed to sixth in those rankings.

“Last year we started seven freshmen,” said Hugar. “This year we were still pretty young, with all freshmen and sophomores starting.”

Not bad for a program that in its second season, does not harbor a senior on its roster and has only two juniors.

“We were 10 goals behind most of these teams last year,” Hugar said of the team’s inaugural season. “I told the girls if we improve that much again next year, teams better look out.”

The rise in the rankings can be attributed to the steady improvement the team has made as a whole.

“Overall we have improved more than anyone else in our conference,” said Griffith.

Reginald Miller
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