U of R Women's Water Polo Falls to Pomona-Pitzer, Plays for Third Place on Sunday

The team heads to the third-place match of the SCIAC Championship Tournament (photo credit: Shelli Freeman).
The team heads to the third-place match of the SCIAC Championship Tournament (photo credit: Shelli Freeman).

After yesterday's last-second win over fourth-seeded Cal Lutheran University, the fifth-seeded University of Redlands women's water polo team looked to ride its recent momentum when it faced off against the top-seeded Pomona-Pitzer Colleges Sagehens in Saturday's semifinal match of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Championship Tournament.   However, an early deficit plagued the Bulldogs, resulting in the 4-10 defeat.

The Sagehens came out on fire, capturing an early four-goal advantage that they never relinquished.

A pair of scores by junior center-defender Deandra Van Houten (Huntington Beach, CA) cut the deficit in half by the end of the second stanza, but that was as close as the Bulldogs would get.

Van Houten accounted for all but one netter for the Maroon and Gray, as freshman driver Grace Cochran (Danville, CA) also found the back of the next on one occasion.

Senior goalkeeper Julie Lupfer (San Diego, CA) recorded five saves in a complete-game effort for the Bulldogs.

Redlands (13-20, 5-5 SCIAC) strives to rebound in Sunday's third-place match against host and third-seeded Whittier College at 1 p.m. Fans may follow the action via live web-streaming at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/whittier.portal