Women's Water Polo | May 01, 2016

CAL STATE MONTEREY BAY 6, GANNON 4 -- BOX SCORE

HAYWARD, Calif. -- The first day of May brought the fifth place game at the WWPA Championship Tournament between the No. 5 seeded Cal State Monterey Bay women's water polo team and the No. 6 seed Gannon University at Chabot College.

Adrianna Craft (Belmont, Mich.) got the scoring started for CSUMB with a backhanded goal two and a half minutes into the game, putting CSUMB ahead early, 1-0. However, Gannon answered with a goal at 4:09 to knot the score at 1-1 in the first quarter. Near the end of the first quarter, Tatiana Veloso (Rio de Janiero, Brazil) floated a nice touch ball into the back of the net to give CSUMB a 2-1 after the first eight minutes.

The second quarter began as a defensive struggle until Veloso netted her second goal of the match to extend the Otter lead to 3-1 halfway through the quarter. After the Lady Knight answered with a goal to bring the game back to a 1-goal separation, Olivia Woolery (Clairemont High School) fired one in to tickle the twine and give CSUMB a 4-2 lead. Cami Kellogg (San Lorenzo Valley HS) converted a 2-meter penalty shot to give CSUMB a 3-goal edge heading into the intermission.

CSUMB got one goal in the third quarter to extend their lead to four goals. Gannon had a chance to answer with a 2-meter penalty shot, but the attempt was easily blocked by CSUMB goalie Morgen Fain (Mt. Whitney High School) giving her five saves heading into the final quarter.   

Gannon scored the first two goals of the fourth quarter to cut its deficit in half and bring the score to 6-4 in favor of Monterey Bay. After a CSUMB time out at the 2:20 mark, the Otter defense held up and allowed CSUMB to take the win by a score of 6-4.

"The team committed to playing defense from start to finish," says Head Coach Gary Figueroa. "Hats off to Fain who had a great day in goal for us."

With the win, Monterey Bay earns fifth place in the 2016 WWPA Championship Tournament.