The University of Redlands women's water polo team headed to Axelrood Pool at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges on Friday afternoon for the annual Gary Troyer Tournament. The team fell 7-10 to Division I Villanova (PA) before dropping the contest 7-11 to Division II Cal State Monterey Bay in the nightcap.
In the morning game, Villanova quickly forced the Bulldogs to play catchup scoring three straight goals to open the game. However, sophomore attacker Nicolette Ramirez (Whittier, CA) netted a goal with 1:15 left to go in the opening period to close the gap to 1-3.
This time Redlands opened the quarter with a score to come within one. Senior attacker Courtney Gray (Yucaipa, CA) found junior defender Sarah Draves (Fallbrook, CA) for the goal at 6:12.
The Wildcats scored before senior attacker Hunter Olivier (Indio, CA) drew an exclusion and then scored during the powerplay to close the gap to one, 3-4, at the midway point of the second period. The rhythm repeated itself as Villanova scored as Redlands matched the goal just 30 seconds later. This time Draves spotted junior attacker Kelly Klish (Glenview, IL) for the assisted goal with just four ticks left on the clock to enter halftime down by just one 4-5.
The Maroon and Gray defense stepped up to kick off the third as first-year goalkeeper Tori Zielinski (Sunnyvale, CA) made back-to-back saves before sophomore attacker Holly Kvanvig (Beaverton, OR) swiped a steal to put the Bulldogs back on offense. But the Wildcats closed out the third with two more scores to put Redlands in a 4-7 hole to enter the last period.
First-year attacker Katrina Nielsen (Houston, TX) won the final sprint and 24 seconds later Kvanvig found the back of the net for a nice spark to start the fourth. She also scored at the 5:45-minute mark for a 6-8 score. Although Olivier put one more through the posts and Zielinski made three nice saves, the Wildcats ultimately took the win, 10-7.
In game two, both teams traded a goal, before the Otters broke open a 5-1 lead with four unanswered tallies by the 6:54-mark in the second period. Their run was broken up by Kvanvig, who scored her second goal of the game 20 seconds later.
The Otters answered back with another two goals, but Nielsen slipped one past the CSUMB goalkeeper before the half to head into the break down, 3-7.
Redlands came out of the half with confidence as Draves and first-year attacker Alyssa Baratelle (Lake Elsinore, CA) scored their first goals of the game within a minute of each other to cut the deficit to 5-7 with 6:33 to go in the third.
In the fourth stanza, Kvanvig completed her hat trick with a goal in the first minute, but CSUMB took the 11-7 victory.
Zielinski combined for 13 saves over the two games.
Redlands (3-7, 1-2 SCIAC) is back in action with another two games on Saturday, March 7, starting with DII Sonoma State University at 9 a.m. before taking on St. Francis University (PA) at 2 p.m.
