The Caltech Women's Water Polo Team fell to 0-2 in SCIAC
play wednesday to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges. Quite the
contrary to Saturday's SCIAC opener, the Beavers started out hot on
offense, and strong on defense.
Despite conceding on each of their first two defensive
possessions, the Beavers fought back and controlled the tempo for
much of the first quarter. First Year Hanna Dodd scored twice on
outside shots and once on a rebounded penalty, while five different
Athenas found the net against Tech goalkeeper Panna Felsen (Grad
Student, Captain).
The second quarter started out much like the first. After a
quick strike by Jessica Wall off the second sprint, the game turned
into a defensive battle and neither side could break onto the
scoresheet for a majority of the period. THat was until the final
three minutes, when the damn broke, and CMS scored five times in
quick succession. Despite a penalty drawn by Junior Margaret Allen,
the burst helped the Athenas extend their lead to 11-3 at the
break.
That ended the competetive phase of the game, though Dodd found
the net for her game-high fourth time in the third frame. Her
strike from 8-meters out scraped the goal post, but was all the
good news to be had for the Techers in the second half. Though they
earned a man-up situation later in the period the Beaver offense
sputtered.
Despite the two lopsided scores to open up SCIAC play, the
Beavers remain optomistic. "To come out against a team like
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and play them essentially even for the first
13 minutes is a testament to how far these ladies have come," said
second-year coach Josh Moser. "We were not satisfied completely,
and we were only down a couple of goals for much of the first half.
If we keep putting in the work to improve our swimming, defense,
and ball control, we should find ourselves in striking distance
deeper and deeper into the ballgames."
First Years Joy Lu and Jennifer Zhu recorded the first steals of
their water polo careers.
The ladies of Tech are back in action Friday evening at home
against Chapman. The ball drops at 5PM.
GO TECH!!!
