Washington, Pa. – The Wheaton College (Mass.) women's water polo team was defeated by host Washington & Jefferson College, 15-5, this evening at Henry Memorial Natatorium in Washington, Pa.
The Lyons slip to 0-2 in their inaugural season, while the Presidents improve to 1-4. The match is the opener of a weekend of water polo at W&J.
First year attacker Ava Biancheri (Westborough, Mass.) tallied three goals for the first-ever hat trick in school history to lead Wheaton, while sophomore center Issabel Babikova (South Portland, Maine) and first year center Sophia Romo (Jupiter, Fla.) each netted a goal.
Junior utility player Emma Halle (Pittsburgh, Pa.) scored a game-high four goals to pace Washington & Jefferson, while junior utility player Anastacia Didovich (Venice, Fla.) recorded a hat trick. First year utility player Hallie Ratcliff (Friendswood, Texas) found the back of the net twice for the home team.
Babikova put the Lyons on the board with the first tally of the night coming just 29 ticks into the game to give Wheaton its first-ever lead in a match.The Presidents answered with six straight goals, capped by a score from Didovich, to give W&J a 6-1 margin with 5:08 to play in the second quarter.
Biancheri zipped a shot into the twine to cut the deficit to 6-2 for Wheaton with 4:06 remaining in the second quarter. The Presidents put together another scoring run with seven unanswered markers to essentially put the game out of reach. Halle fueled the offensive output for Washington & Jefferson with three goals, including a score with 5:54 to play in the match to give the Presidents a 13-2 advantage.
Biancheri and Romo tallied back-to-back goals for the Lyons to pull them to within 13-4 late in the fourth quarter, but first year utility player Sabrina Estrada (Pico Rivera, Calif.) and junior attacker Sydney Neumann (Long Beach, Calif.) netted the final two goals of the match for Washington & Jefferson to set the final at 15-5.
Wheaton returns to action tomorrow at Henry Memorial Natatorium when it plays Pennsylvania State University Behrend at 12:20, p.m., while the Presidents host Connecticut College at 2:30 p.m.
