Ingrid Rodriguez
Staff Writer
The Leopards suffered a 15-6 loss against the Occidental Tigers Saturday at Las Flores Park.
In the first quarter, Occidental made their first five goals while the Leopards only made two goals.
“We didn’t fight the way we have in the past and the way we can,” junior goalie Lauren Shepard said.
Sophomore driver and captain Bethie Ross made the first goal followed by driver Maddie Lovrensky with the second goal.
By the end of the first quarter, the score was 5-2 with the Tigers in the lead.
During the second quarter, Occidental made a goal within two and a half minutes, followed by another goal toward the end of the quarter.
This left the score at 7-2 with the Tigers leading after the first half of the game.
“(I) expected a lot better effort against this Occidental team right here,” head coach Alex La said.
“We felt motivated, but we couldn’t finish our opportunity,” freshman utility Sarah Jefferis said.
Occidental started the third quarter with a goal and continued with two more goals.
The Leopards struck back within the last three minutes with a goal by driver Kelsey Broyles and another by Ross.
By the end of third quarter the Tigers lead with a score of 10-4.
“By the time we did start to get it together, it was a little too late,” Jefferis said.
During the fourth quarter, Occidental quickly made four goals.
The Leopards then made two more goals by Ross and utility Brianna DiCarlo. With 33 seconds left on the clock, the Tigers made their last goal.
“I think we just came in and our intensity level wasn’t how it should have been,” junior utility Alex Gudeneau said. “We didn’t do our jobs on defense and we need to convert on offense.”
The Leopards currently maintain the ranking of seventh place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
“We weren’t able to prep for this team as much as in the past,” Shepard said.
Ross said that because of the rain and thunder the day before, the Leopards had to practice by running offense and defense on land.
“Walking and swimming are not similar,” Ross said.
“This team is a young team and they have a potential to be great but they’re struggling for consistency because they haven’t had a full team (this year),” La said.
Most of the women on the team said this in different ways. The point is they are positive for Saturday’s game.
“We’re definitely going to change our attitude,” Ross said. “(We’re) not going to come out slow.”
The Leopards suffered a 14-6 loss to Redlands Wednesday.
Their overall record in SCIAC now stands at 1-5 and maintain a 8-19 overall record.
The women’s water polo team will play Caltech on Saturday at Las Flores Park.
Ingrid Rodriguez can be reached at ingrid.rodriguez@laverne.edu.
