GCC Tournament Central
San Diego, Calif. - The No. 16 Pacific women's water polo team cruised into the Golden Coast Conference semifinals with a 13-4 win over Fresno Pacific in the quarters on Friday. Karolina Hlavata scored four goals, while Rachel Krieger added three.
Ellen Tiedemann and Catie Mahnke each tallied twice, while Morgan Hurley and Viktoria Szmodics also scored for Pacific.
After a tight first quarter, Pacific seized control with a 3-0 second and a 3-1 third quarter. The Tigers closed out the win with a 4-1 fourth quarter.
Fresno Pacific got on the board first with a bar-down goal from Mikayla Scheer. The Tigers answered back immediately, as Hlavata ripped home a pass from Krieger. Krieger tallied on the Tigers next possession and Hlavata added another goal, both of assists from Viktoria Szmodics as Pacific led 3-1. Emily Knowles cut the Tigers lead to one with a goal before the end of the first quarter.
Krieger opened the second quarter with a goal on the Tigers first possession, capping a 6-on-5 opportunity.
On a breakout pass from Alexis Hollinrake, Hlavata finished bar-down for a 5-2 lead. Morgan Hurley set up Catie Mahnke as the Tigers stretched the lead to four, 6-2 after halftime.
Krieger opened the third quarter with a goal, and after Fresno Pacific cut the Tigers lead to 7-3 with a powerplay goal from Emily Knowles, Tiedemann answered right back with a goal 23 seconds later. Tiedemann set up Hlavata as Pacific led 8-3 after three quarters of action.
In the fourth, Knowles tallied again for FPU, but Hurley finished a pass from Mahnke for a 10-4 lead and Tiedemann, Mahnke and Szmodics tallied to round out the scoring.
Hollinrake finished with three saves in three quarters while Meghan Nee added two in the fourth quarter.
Fresno Pacific goalie Courtney Hall finished with 10 saves.
The Tigers improve to 15-16 on the season and advance to the semifinals on Saturday. The Tigers will meet Cal Baptist, the third seed, at 1:30 p.m. at Aztec Aquaplex. The Lancers advanced with a 13-5 win over Azusa Pacific in the quarterfinals.
Pacific won the regular season meeting with Cal Baptist, 10-9, on April 2.
