The Women’s Water Polo squad finished up their SCIAC season in third place after a weekend of up and downs at the Conference Championship at Redlands University.

The first day of competition, Friday, saw the women dominate two opponents, beating Occidental and Whittier behind 11 goals from utility player Jacquie Cole (’02). Cole scored six out of eight of the Sagehen goals in their 8-7 victory over Occidental and then five out of nine of their goals in a 9-5 victory over Whittier.

When asked about her prolific scoring, Cole said: "I was in the right spot. Before the game we went over some tape and realized that the Occidental goalie cheats a little. I was in a position to take advantage of that. I also scored some goals on fast-breaks. Basically we played really well as a team. Once I scored a few it gave me the confidence to continue shooting and the ball went in."

Saturday’s match-up against LaVerne was a battle. The Sagehens squandered a 3-0 lead after the ejection of one of their players energized the Leopards and gave them a 5-4 lead going into the final minute of the game.

In the final minute, however, freshman sensation Joy Haviland (’02) scored two goals to bring the Hens to victory. She finished the game with four. Cole also contributed to the Sagehen this victory, scoring two goals.

Goalie Claire Townsend (’01) said, "Joy played a great game. She really came through for the team in that final minute."

This was the peak of the tournament for the Sagehens, who lost the next two games to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Redlands.

Cole said: "Against CMS we just didn’t play well together. We played poorly defensively and let them capitalize on their speed advantage."

The final score was 12-4.

The Redlands game yielded a similar result, 12-4, but was a better played game. Cole said, "They’re just really good. They’ve been national champs for a while now. They capitalized on our defensive mistakes."

The Sagehens will have a shot at redemption this weekend with Nationals being hosted at Haldeman pool. Spectators are encouraged and welcome, and if the competition is anything like SCIACs, you should be in for a treat. Other SCIAC teams that received invitations are Occidental, Redlands and CMS.

Of their chances in Nationals, Terra Slavin said, "we can beat even the best teams we’ve played. If we play really well we can beat Redlands and we can definitely beat CMS." The tournament starts on Friday morning and will continue over the weekend.