Rally falls short as Panthers drop two to open season

ORANGE, Calif. – The Chapman University women's water polo team opened the season with a pair of losses on the first day of its own Chapman Tournament at the Allred Aquatics Center on Saturday. After starting the season with a 14-3 defeat to No. 1 Occidental College in the morning, the Panthers rallied but could not earn their first victory of the season in a 9-7 loss to Mercyhurst College (Pa.).

Occidental 14, Chapman 3
Opening the season against Division III's top-ranked Tigers proved to be no easy task. Occidental jumped out to a 5-0 lead after one quarter and never looked back, holding the Panthers to just one second-half goal courtesy of sophomore driver Sami McLaughlin.

The Panthers put together a brief rally in the second quarter thanks to goals from sophomore utility Sam Martin and freshman utility Hilary Campbell, cutting the Tigers lead to 6-2. However, from that point on, Occidental would out-score Chapman 8-1 and win going away.

Mercyhurst 9, Chapman 7
The Panthers fell behind early again and had to play catch up the whole game. Mercyhurst jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first half and led 5-2 at halftime, but Chapman rallied. Back-to-back goals by Campbell and junior 2-meter Arielle Worthington pulled the Panthers within a goal, but they could not get even.

With 4:52 left in the game, junior Stephanie Roy scored to make it a 7-6 Lakers lead, but Mercyhurst scored another two quick goals to take a commanding 9-6 lead in the final minutes.

Six different Panthers scored goals, including a pair of goals from Martin.

Chapman will wrap the season-opening tournament on Sunday with games against Grove City (Iowa) at 11:45 a.m. and La Verne at 7:15 p.m.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director