NORTON, Mass. — The No. 9 seed Wheaton College (Mass.) women's water polo team fell to No. 7 seed Connecticut College, 13-4, this afternoon in a consolation game of the Collegiate Water Polo Association Tournament Championship hosted by Wheaton at Balfour Natatorium in Norton, Mass.
The Lyons conclude their season with an 0-20 mark, while the Camels improve to 4-10 and will face the No. 8 seed Pennsylvania State University Behrend tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. in Norton, Mass.
Connecticut College owned a 41-26 shot advantage over Wheaton and collected 16 steals, while the Lyons tallied seven steals.
First-year center Avary Guge (Winchester, Calif.) led Wheaton with a team-high three points, scoring a goal and a pair of assists to go along with a steal and a field block. Sophomore Ryanna Ritting (Perkasie, Pa.) scored a goal and added a steal and a drawn exclusion, while junior attacker Sophia Romo (Jupiter, Fla.) and classmate Amelia Brown (Acton, Mass.) each registered a goal. First-year attacker Toni Munguia (Temecula, Calif.) tallied an assist and a drawn exclusion. First-year goalkeeper Anduena Kraja (Chicago, Ill.) stopped 16 shots and collected a team-high three steals.
Senior driver Emma Luna (Wahiawa, Hawaii) tallied a match-high six points with five goals and an assist and added a pair of steals. Junior Maddie Baybeck (Ann Arbor, Mich.) recorded four points with two goals and two assists and registered a field block. Senior two-meter attacker Ainsley Cornwall (San Mateo, Calif.) scored a pair of goals to go along with a drawn exclusion and a game-high four steals. Junior goalie Juno Aselton (Brooklyn, N.Y.) recorded 13 saves and tallied a match-high five assists.
The visitors scored the first five goals in the match, including three markers in the opening quarter. Luna added the first goal, while sophomore Sarah Nagel (Honolulu, Hawaii) and first-year Kendall Halfacre (Aurora, Colo.) each tallied a marker to give the Camels a 3-0 advantage at the end of the opening quarter.
Luna stretched the Camels lead to 5-0 scoring back-to-back goals to open the second quarter. After a drawn exclusion, Wheaton got on the board on the power-play when Brown fired into the back of the net to make the score 5-1 with 6:18 remaining in the second period. The Lyons tallied their second goal of the match when Aselton blocked a shot attempt by Romo, which was rebounded by Ritting who scored off the second-chance opportunity to pull Wheaton within 5-2 with 5:14 remaining in the second quarter. The visitors added the final three goals of the period which included a goal by Baybeck and a pair of markers by Cornwall to give the Camels an 8-2 advantage at the end of the second period.
After a Connecticut College goal by senior driver Melia Lorch (Encinitas, Calif.) to give the Camels a 9-2 lead, the Lyons stopped the four-goal scoring run by capitalizing on their second power-play of the match. Munguia connected on a pass across to Guge who fired a goal into the back of the net to cut the margin to 9-3 with 5:21 left in the third quarter.
Senior two-meter defender Anna Taylor (Pleasanton, Calif.) opened the scoring in the fourth quarter for the visitors, while Romo matched her 35 seconds later with the Lyons' final goal of the game and the season to cut the margin to 10-4. The Camels closed out the match with three consecutive goals.
