The University of Redlands women's water polo team edged out a hard-fought 8-5 victory over Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) foe, Occidental College on Wednesday night at the Thompson Aquatic Center. 

In a defense-laden first period, junior attacker Katelynn Holloman (Wildomar, CA) connected with junior attacker Kelly Klish (Glenview, IL), who slipped the ball past the Oxy goalkeeper for the first goal of the game with 3:38 left in the first. The Tigers evened the score just over a minute later, but first-year attacker Katrina Nielsen (Houston, TX) notched a tally with 40 seconds left to help end the period with a 2-1 lead for the Bulldogs.

The second period was also tightly contested with one goal scored by each team for a 3-2 score in favor of the Maroon and Gray heading into the half.

The Bulldogs' offense was in full effect in the second half with sophomore attacker Nicolette Ramirez (Whittier, CA) beating the Oxy defense with two consecutive goals to open up a 5-2 lead at the 5:47-mark in the third period.

Although Occidental broke up the offensive spurt with a power-play goal, Klish lobbed the ball over to sophomore attacker Holly Kvanvig (Beaverton, OR) for one last goal in the third to extend their lead to 6-3 with eight minutes left to play.

In the fourth period, both teams traded five-meter penalty shots scores to make it 7-4 less than two minutes in. After back-and-forth action, Kvanvig slammed home her second goal of the game with 4:12 remaining. Although the Tigers scored on a power-play, the Maroon and Gray earned the 8-5 victory.

For the game, Kvanvig and Ramirez each notched two goals, while both Holloman and Klish registered one assist. In net, first-year goalkeeper Erin Ross (Newport Beach, CA) impressed with six saves in the first half. First-year goalkeeper Tori Zielinski (Sunnyvale, CA) stepped up in the second half with three saves to preserve the halftime lead for the win.