CLAREMONT, Calif. - The 2015 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Women's Water Polo Championships hosted by Pomona-Pitzer ran from Friday to Sunday and during that span the Cal Lutheran squad went 2-2.
CLU entered as the seventh seed and faced off with second-seeded Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Friday afternoon, falling 13-7. The Athenas opened a 4-2 first quarter lead and never looked back. Despite the loss, Gina Merry notched 14 saves. Amanda Jones produced a hat-trick and Tatiana McCuaig added two goals with Logan Young handing out two assists. Jordan Card inched closer to the CLU drawn ejections record with five. Young and Maggie Kurzeka shared the team-high with three steals apiece.
On Saturday morning, Cal Lutheran returned to PP where they shutout Caltech through three periods en route to an 11-1 victory. Seven different Regals scored and Kaylee Kastrup netted three goals for a hat-trick at her final SCIAC Championships. Card added a trio of drawn ejections to her career tally and scored once with an assist and the only field block of the game. Defensively, Kayla Wagenhofer led all players with three steals while Bailey Likewise, Bailey Mena and Darby Schuett each earned two steals. Merry produced nine saves.
The afternoon game on the second day of the tournament pitted Cal Lutheran against La Verne. Tied at 6-6 with just under three minutes to play, the Leopards found the back of the net to take a 7-6 lead that would hold until the final buzzer. Merry finished with 13 saves in the loss. Kastrup and McCuaig each grabbed four steals and McCuaig and Young both recorded a field block to aid the defensive effort. Offensively, three of the seven goals came by way of Card who also had three drawn ejections.
In the final contest of the spring, Cal Lutheran faced off with Redlands and used a stellar third quarter to propel the Violet and Gold past the Bulldogs, 16-10. The senior duo of Card and Kastrup left it all in the pool. For the final time donning Violet and Gold, Card made it a day to remember by scoring a career-best seven goals, adding two assists, a field block, a steal and five drawn ejections to take over the career Cal Lutheran record by one with 224 overall. Additionally, Kastrup contributed with a trio of drawn ejections. Young was instrumental in the win with five assists and four steals while Merry posted 10 more saves.
Cal Lutheran (9-20, 5-7 SCIAC) finished seventh at the 2015 SCIAC Championships.
Box Scores: CLU 16, UR 10
Box Scores: LV 7, CLU 6
Box Scores: CLU 11, CIT 1
Box Scores: CMS 13, CLU 7
CLU Twitter: https://twitter.com/clusports
Follow WWP: https://twitter.com/regalspolo
CLU Facebook: https://wwwacebook.com/clusports
CLU Instagram: http://instagram.com/clusports#
