The University of Redlands women's water polo team dominated the Poets of Whittier College in Saturday's opening Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) contest at the Thompson Aquatic Center, before falling to Cal Baptist University in an afternoon bout.
Against the Poets, Redlands uncorked seven unanswered scores to start the game and cruised to a 13-4 victory.
Accounting for nearly half of the team's goals, senior center Jaime Nippert (Gresham, OR) and senior center-defender Jill Stein (Palm Desert, CA) each provided a hat trick for the Maroon and Gray. Junior driver Moana Tuipulotu (Lahaina, HI) and freshman center-defender Deandra van Houten (Huntington Beach, CA) also supplied multi-goal efforts, firing off two netters apiece. Freshman center-defender Haley Hollinrake (Redlands, CA), senior driver Casey Sripramong (Glendale, CA), and senior center Joy Corona (Lake Bluff, IL) rounded out the Bulldog scorers by finding the back of the net on one occasion.
Sophomore goalkeeper Julie Lupfer (Poway, CA) patrolled the Redlands cage with 13 stops.
Against Cal Baptist, the Bulldogs faced an early three-goal deficit and never recovered, resulting in an 8-15 defeat.
Once again, Nippert led the Maroon and Gray offense, uncorking four goals, while Stein backed her with two scores. Hollinrake and Sripramong notched one netter each.
Lupfer collected five saves in the loss.
Redlands (12-12, 1-0 SCIAC) welcomes the Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer Colleges to the Thompson Aquatic Center on Wednesday for an important SCIAC tilt at 7 p.m.
