Sudden Death Victory for Tigers in the Pool
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (April 5, 2008) – It was obvious from the beginning that the two teams competing in Taylor Pool today were evenly matched. It took a pair of overtimes and ultimately sudden death to end a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game between Occidental College and the University of Redlands. The Tigers came out on top with a 15-14 win over the Bulldogs.
Senior utility player Danielle Montenegro took the Tigers on her shoulders with six goals in the game, two coming in overtime. Oxy also looked to freshman Julie Monday for a pair of overtime goals to seal the deal.
Following the first period the teams were tied at 3-3. Occidental took a slight 5-4 advantage into halftime, but the Bulldogs added three, limiting the Tigers to a pair, in the third to again knot the score at the end of the third period.
Both teams netted four goals in the final quarter of regulation. The scoreboard read 10-10 with 4:08 to play. Neither team scored for the next three minutes plus. Kelly Curtain scored with 39 seconds to play giving Oxy an 11-10 edge. The Bulldogs weren’t quite done yet, though. With 17 seconds to go Redlands’ Sam Greenawalt scored her fourth goal of the game to send the teams into overtime.
Oxy struck first in OT with a goal from Montenegro. Freshman Julie Monday provided the second OT goal for Oxy, just one second before the buzzer sounded. The Tigers’ got a second goal from Montenegro to open a 14-11 lead with 2:37 to play.
Redlands chipped away and battled back into the game with three consecutive goals, the final one coming with 22 seconds to play. The teams exchanged turnovers to send the contest into a sudden death play.
Monday’s next goal would break the tie, giving the Tigers their second SCIAC win of the season.
Head Coach Larry Zubrin was please with the way the team came together in the win.
"Any SCIAC win is a big deal. Our conference is very evenly matched and it is always going to be a close battle. For us, we just take it one game at a time and go out and do the best we can."
"You have to give Redlands a lot of credit though. Every time it seemed like we had them down, they came storming back to tie it up. We stuck to our game plan and in the end the girls came through."
Offensively Sarah Boehler supplied the team with four goals adding a pair of assists. Montenegro also finished with two assists. Ashley Notti and Karie Nickle recorded four assists apiece.
Defensively Notti got four steals while Boehler, Perla Almaraz and Laura Simanonok each stole the ball twice. Curtain drew four ejections. Boehler and Notti each drew and ejections as well.
In front of the cage Simanonok blocked nine shots.
Redlands was led by Greenwalt and three goals apiece from Molly Todd and Jennifer Caron. Lauren Ellsworth made 13 saves for the Bulldogs.
Oxy improves to 13-10 overall, 2-1 in SCIAC while the Bulldogs fall to 5-17, 1-2 SCIAC.
“Hopefully this win will give us some momentum going into a big week of games,” Zubrin said. Wednesday we host Cal Lutheran, currently the #1 ranked team in the nation and then we play # 2 Pomona-Pitzer next Saturday.”
The Tigers and Regals will face-off at 5:00 p.m. in Taylor Pool on April 9.
The season concludes with the SCIAC Tournament the last weekend of April. The winner of the SCIAC conference gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I National Championship Tournament, leaving a lot at stake for each conference match-up.
