MERCED, Calif. – The University of California, Merced women's water polo team split the first day of the NAIA Water Polo Finals with a 14-10 win over Cal Maritime on Friday night. The Bobcats fell 19-1 to OUAZ earlier in the day.
With a victory, the Bobcats (7-11) are guaranteed either the #2 or #3 seed when semifinal play begins on Saturday night. Prior to the semifinals, the Bobcats have one more round robin game against Westcliff University tomorrow morning.
The Bobcats 14-goal outing against Cal Maritime marks the second highest goal count of the season for the Bobcats. Overall, head coach Johnny Bega's squad has now scored double figure goals in four different games.
Hope Stokes scored five of the Bobcats 14 goals, while Arianna Martinez scored a career-high four goals and Viviana Luna added a pair. Jacqueline Azevedo, Kaitlyn Kimmel, and Carly Kissinger scored a goal each for the Bobcats.
Stokes, who upped her goals total to 30 on the year, was also credited with five steals and an assist.
The Merced, Calif., native scored the games first goal just over 30 seconds in which allowed the Bobcats to lead wire-to-wire. Her teammates followed suit and the Bobcats built a 5-0 advantage within the game's first four minutes. Stokes (2), Martinez (2), and Luna (1) made up the Bobcats first five goals.
UC Merced and Cal Maritime traded the next five goals and the Bobcats led 8-3 with two minutes left to go before intermission. Kissinger extended the Bobcats lead to six and Luna scored the final goal of the first half to give UC Merced a 10-3 lead heading into halftime.
A quick goal from Martinez on the Bobcats first possession of the third quarter gave the Bobcats a game-high lead of eight goals at 11-3. The score from Martinez was her fourth of the contest.
Following Martinez's goal, Cal Maritime started to chip away at the Bobcats lead but the host Bobcats still led by at least five goals all the way until the final minute in which Cal Maritime finalized the games scoring with their tenth goal of the day in the 14-10 outcome.
UC Merced goalkeeper Carlin Rodelo was credited with four saves in the victory.
Other individual notables include three assists and three steals from Luna, and two steals each from Martinez and Miranda Cruz.
In the first match of the day, Kimmel was responsible for the Bobcats lone goal. Her goal came in the opening two minutes, but OUAZ reeled off 17 unanswered goals the rest of the way. OUAZ is currently the lone undefeated team in the NAIA Finals.
Looking ahead, UC Merced will play Westcliff University at 10:00am on Saturday, April 1 to wrap up NAIA Finals Round Robin play at the Aquatics Center.
