PROVIDENCE, R.I.— The Long Island University women's water polo team made history on Saturday, playing in two contests in the opening day of its inaugural season at the 2020 Bruno Classic hosted by Brown University at the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center.
The Sharks battled tournament host Brown in the morning session, falling 10-6. LIU came back Saturday afternoon, getting edged out by Whittier 14-13 in a back-and-forth battle.
Game 1 - Brown 10, LIU 6.
Brown held an early lead after the opening quarter, scoring one goal. LIU recorded its first goal in the second quarter as freshman
Alejandra Aranguren found the back of the cage. The Bears tallied two goals in the second quarter to take 3-1 lead into the half.
The home team continued to score out of halftime with a two-goal run to start the third quarter. The Sharks broke up the run on a goal from freshman
Jessica Dean to bring the score to 5-2. Brown added two more goals to push the lead up to 7-2. Freshman Kate Hinirchs netted a goal with just under three-minutes remaining in the quarter.
Brown added back-to-back goals to end the third and kick off the fourth quarter for a 9-3 lead. Dean led the Sharks scoring effort in the final period, finding the back of the cage three more times to bring the score to 9-6 in favor of the Bears. Brown capped the scoring with a goal with 25 seconds to take the 10-6 victory.
Dean led all scorers in the game with four goals in her first career game. Freshman
Julia Zebak made one race in the cage.
Game 2 - Whittier 14, LIU 13.
Saturday's second game was a back-and-forth battle from the start. Whittier made the first run of the game with the first two goals of the game. Dean started the scoring for LIU in game two with back-to-back goals midway through the quarter. Whittier closed the first quarter with two more goals to take a 4-2 lead.
The offense kicked up in the second quarter as LIU erupted with a three-goal scoring run in the first two and a half minutes of the quarter. Aranguren, freshman
Jeannet Garcia and Hinrichs all scored in that run for the Sharks as the team took a 5-4 lead. LIU outscored Whittier 3-2 in the final minutes with goals by rookies
Jenna Anderson,
Erin Pascual and Aranguren for an 8-5 lead.
Scoring continued in the third quarter with eight goals scored between both teams. Whittier outscored LIU 5-3 to tie up the game 11-11 heading into the final quarter.
The Poets broke the tie game with two goals to open the fourth quarter. Dean broke into the scoring run with her second goal of the game at 5:35 in the fourth. Whittier responded with its final goal 25 seconds late for a 14-12 advantage. Aranguren tallied her fourth quarter of the game with 4:54 remaining to bring the score to 14-13. LIU looked to tie things up in the the final minutes but were stonewalled by the Whittier defense.
Four different scorers registered multi-goal games against Whittier. Zebak made 12 saves against the Poets.
UP NEXT
LIU concludes its season opening tournament on Sunday, February 2 with two more games. The Sharks will take on Austin College at 10:20 a.m. before capping the weekend with a 1:50 p.m. contest against Saint Francis U.
