LA JOLLA, Calif. -- After an 8-6 setback against Cal State East Bay earlier in the day, the Sonoma State women's water polo team held off Santa Clara for a narrow 5-4 victory to salvage a split on day two of the Triton Invitational on Sunday in La Jolla. The Seawolves improve to 3-8 on the year.
Sonoma State will play two games in Davis on Saturday, the first against Cal State Bakersfield at 12:15 pm before taking on host UC Davis at 4:00 pm. SSU will then host its 2017 home opener on Sunday with Fresno Pacific with the first sprint scheduled for 1:00 pm.
Cal State East Bay 8, Sonoma State 6 -- Box Score
It was like any other Cal State East Bay-Sonoma State matchup as the two teams played extremely close for the entire 32-minute affair. It was the Pioneers to take a 2-0 lead before
Taylor Brown and
Lyndsie Williams scored two consecutive goals to knot the game at 2-2. Though Sonoma never held a lead in the game, it never trailed by more than two goals until a CSUEB goal with 1:35 remaining in the third period gave the Pioneers a 7-4 lead.
Nicole Groat put one in just before the end of the third quarter and
Nicole Cunningham pulled Sonoma within one at the 5:19 mark of the fourth, but the Seawolves would be held out of the goal the rest of the way.
Williams led with two goals as Cunningham, Groat, Brown and
Cassidy Mundt each had one goal.
Taylor Plorin had five saves and three steals in 24 minutes of action.
Sonoma State 5, Santa Clara 4 -- Box Score
In the final game of the Triton Invitational, Williams,
Carleigh Robinson and Groat put SSU up 3-0 and the defense didn't allow Santa Clara to get on the board until the four-minute mark of the second quarter. The Broncos eventually knotted the game up at 4-4 with 3:01 left in the third quarter, but Robinson broke the tie with under two minutes left in the third. From then on, it became a defensive struggle and neither team could find the net, paving the way for Sonoma's 5-4 win.
Robinson ended with two goals while Williams, Mundt and Groat supplied the other. Plorin made 11 big saves in the cage for SSU.
