The women’s water polo team came into the Claremont Tournament with no mercy with wins over Chapman and Macalester on March 17. However the next day the Leopards dropped two matches to Arizona and Cal State San Bernandino.
Against Chapman, freshman Amanda Fernandez scored three goals in the first period as ULV trailed the Panthers in the first period.
Juniors Jen Aguilar and Lindsey Watson also scored three goals a piece en route to an 11-8 win.
Taking the momentum into their second game, goalkeeper Lindsay Jones shut down Macalester through three quarters, building their lead to 7-0 at one point.
Never looking back, the Leopards won 11-2 over the Scots.
Freshman Mahina Reyes and Watson both had a hat trick along with junior Katie Watkins while Fernandez scored two and junior Laura Larsen.
Goalkeeper Lindsay Jones had five saves keeping the Leopards defense strong throughout the match.
Sunday wasn’t as much as a success as Saturday though facing Division II Cal State San Bernardino and Division I Arizona.
Playing two tough games, the Leopards fought hard but lost the first game 10-4 to CSUB and 8-6 to Arizona.
“I felt it was a big learning experience. Although we had two big wins on Saturday our team realized there is still room for improvement when we fell short on Sunday,” said junior Laura Larsen who scored a goal against Arizona.
Larsen was joined by Aguilar and Watson who had two and Reyes with one against Arizona. Jones also had nine saves against the Wildcats.
“We fought hard even though we lost both on Sunday,” said Jones.
“We are going to take the positive out of Saturday and the negative out of Sunday and will hopefully combine the two when preparing for our first SCIAC match against Whittier,” said Jones.
ULV’s (7-6) five-game win streak against Division III opponents will be challenged as the team begins SCIAC on the road against Whittier tomorrow.
“There’s definite room for improvement, but we are doing really well and as long as we keep practicing hard we will only get better,” said freshman Sydney Blazek.
Lauren Reed can be reached at lreed@ulv.edu.
Lauren Reed
