Water polo team wins again

Louis LaVenture,
Sports and Campus Editor

Southern California was kind to the Cal State East Bay women’s water polo team over the weekend.

The Pioneers went 3-1 at the Tina Finali Invitational tournament in Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village on Saturday and Sunday. CSUEB is now 6-9 overall this season after they beat Pomona Pitzer 8-3, Occidental College 17-4, and Chapman University 13-9. The only loss in the two-day tournament for the Pioneers came against Azusa Pacific on Saturday 8-7.

CSUEB got things going in the right direction against the Pomona Pitzer Sagehens on Saturday and dominated the entire match on their way to a five-point win over the Sagehens, 8-3. Pioneers junior Taylor Cross recorded a hat trick in the first quarter and junior Sabrina Hatzer added a goal to give CSUEB a 4-0 lead. Pioneers juniors Casey Rushforth and Jenn Lightbody each scored a goal in the second quarter that gave CSUEB a 6-0 halftime advantage in the game.

Hatzer and Cross both added a goal in the third quarter for CSUEB that put the game out of reach for Pomona Pitzer.

Seniors Chrissie Alving-Trinh and Sarah Westcott combined to score all three goals in the loss for the Saghens who are now 3-6 overall.

The Pioneers could not hold off Azusa Pacific in the second game of the tournament on Saturday and fell to the Cougars by a final score of 8-7.

It was the only loss of the tournament for CSUEB and Azusa Pacific improved to 7-8 overall after the victory.

CSUEB had seven different players score the seven goals but it still wasn’t enough to edge out the Cougars who finished with one more goal thanks in large part to hat tricks by senior Taylor Whitney and freshman Ashley Taylor.

Pioneers junior utility player Tori Dettloff found the back of the net to make the score 7-7 with 1:45 left in the match.

Cougar freshman Taylor fired a shot past the CSUEB goalkeeper with 54 seconds left in the game for the final goal of the contest against CSUEB.

“From a leadership standpoint the returning players have great drive and trust one another,” Azusa Pacific Head Coach Julie Snodgrass said. “The returners have really stepped up their level of play and that drives the newcomers to increase their level of play.”

Sunday saw two Division III opponents for CSUEB, the first of which was Occidental College (0-8 overall) who the Pioneers dismantled by a final score of 17-4 over the Tigers.

Dettloff scored two goals in the first quarter and sophomore from Australia Olivia Mackell also scored twice in the first period for CSUEB.

Dettloff finished with four goals and senior Alyssa Hess also recorded a hat trick with three goals in the victory. Pioneers senior goalkeeper Marrina Nation finished the game with 9 saves and allowed four goals, one in each quarter.

That momentum carried over into the final game of the tournament for CSUEB against Chapman University (1-4) and the Pioneers pulled out a close win by a final of 13-9.

Rushforth and Hatzer both scored three goals each in the win for CSUEB and Cross added in two more goals.

The Pioneers outscored their opponents 45 to 24 in the tournament and will look to keep the offensive output going when they head North for their next regular season action.

CSUEB will take part in the Aggie Shootout at Schaal Aquatics Center in Davis on Saturday. The Pioneers will take on the host team No. 13 UC Davis (8-8) at 12:30 p.m. and the Santa Clara Broncos (11-5) at 4:45 p.m.