San Diego, Calif. - The No. 16 Pacific women's water polo team advanced to the Golden Coast Conference Championship game with a 12-8 win over No. 23 Cal Baptist Saturday at at Aztec Aquaplex. Rachel Krieger scored four goals while Alexis Hollinrake tallied 12 saves.
Karolina Hlavata, Viktoria Szmodics and Megan Torre each scored twice while Aelish Guinn and Ellen Tiedemann also posted goals.
Hollinrake recored her 12 saves against a Cal Baptist team that led the GCC in scoring in the regular season (10.6 goals per game) and boasted two of the top three scorers in the conference.
The Tigers held GCC Player of the Year Hannah Evans, who entered with 105 goals in 32 games, to two goals, Lauren Kocsis (who entered with 62) to one, and Valerie Spezzaferri (who entered with 48) to one.
Megan Torre put Pacific on the board at the 4:25 mark, but Evans answered, tying the game at 1-1 with 1:33 to go in the quarter. The first period closed with a flurry as the Tigers responded with a goal from Aelish Guinn 15 seconds later and after a CBU shot ringed off the post, Viktoria Szmodics tallied with 22 seconds left in the quarter for a 3-1 Pacific lead.
In the second, Karolina Hlavata stretched Pacific's lead to three, and Torre's second of the game provided a 5-1 lead. Kocsis responded for the Lancers cutting the Pacific edge to three, before Tiedemann's goal at the 5:00 mark made it 6-2. The Lancers bunkered down defensively and held the Tigers off the scoreboard for the rest of the period, and Samantha Banks cut the Tigers lead to 6-3 at halftime.
On Pacific's first possession of the second half, Krieger accepted a pass from Szmodics and ripped home a bard-down goal, but Kaitlyn Persky answered back on the very next possession for the Lancers.
The Lancers killed off a Pacific 6-on-5 as Hlavata hit the post, and as CBU gained control of the rebound, Evans beat the Tigers down the pool and tallied a breakaway goal.
Tiedemann fed Krieger in front of the pool from 3 meters away, and Krieger spun and popped a lob shot over everyone for an 8-5 Tiger lead with 4:48 to go.
The Lancers capped a 6-on-5 opportunity with a goal from Spezzaferri to pull within 8-6, but Kreiger hit a lob off an entry pass from Torre to restore a three-goal lead. Jessica Castellano tallied with 52 seconds left in the third, but Szmodics ripped a restart from four meters to the top right for a 10-7 lead after three quarters.
Courtney Menard finished cross-cage from Paizlee Dreyer, but Hlavata answered as Guinn drew an exclusion in the center and kicked to her left and Hlavata finished to the far right side for an 11-8 lead with 6:53 to play.
Hollinrake made back-to-back saves, and Krieger drilled a shot from distance off a set-up from Szmodics with 4:01 to play. Hollinrake denied the Lancers' next attempt and the Tigers began to spread the pool. Hollinrake kept a lob shot from landing over the line off the post, and then posted a save on Spezzaferri.
The Tigers kept all but one player back and fed the two-meter from distance, but Rowland stopped Guinn on the doorstep giving the Lancers the ball back with 1:01 to go.
Pacific took an exclusion denying an entry and Hollinrake posted a stop and hauled in a shot at the buzzer as the Tigers advanced.
The Tigers will face the top seed, No. 15 San Diego State on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. with the Golden Coast Conference championship and a bid to the eight-team NCAA Tournament on the line.
