Roadrunner Inviational II Tournament Central
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Santa Clara University women's water polo team scored 11 goals en route to knocking off Cal State East Bay Saturday afternoon at the Roadrunner Invitational II in Bakersfield. SCU now prepares for its marquee game of the weekend, a meeting with Colorado State Sunday.
Santa Clara (12-17; 9-6 WWPA) won its ninth Western Water Polo Association game of the year, with the 11-5 win over Cal State East Bay (19-12; 9-5 WWPA). The win came after SCU dropped its tournament opener to host Cal State Bakersfield 8-6, a back-and-forth game against CSUB (7-27; 3-8 WWPA) in their home pool – a team the Broncos have beaten twice this season.
However SCU was able to rebound nicely thanks to a team-leading three goals from freshman Claire Eadington and two goals apiece from Marina Allen, Laura Burtness and Taylor Harkins.
"After the morning loss, we talked about getting our offense going," said Santa Clara head coach Keith Wilbur. "We really pushed the counter-attack, that was the main thing. We were really aggressive this afternoon, we were not afraid to shoot the ball."
Defensively, goalkeeper Wren White was solid in the cage, blocking 12 shots against CSU East Bay to total 18 on the day.
"We get in trouble when just one or two people are taking shots," said Wilbur. "It was great to see a balanced scoring attack. We have to do a really good job in a number of areas tomorrow against Colorado State, defending their counter-attack and push our offense again like we did this afternoon."
Colorado State (10-14; 3-5 WWPA) escaped with a 10-9 win over CSU East Bay earlier in the day. The SCU-CSU meeting at 10 a.m. Sunday morning will be the only time the two teams will play during the regular season. The match up could potentially effect the seedings in the upcoming conference championships.
