May 12, 2007

Stats

Los Alamitos, CA --The Wagner College women's water polo team took on fifth seeded Loyola Marymount earlier today in the second round of the NCAA Tournament falling to the Lions by a count of 20-10. The loss moves the Green & White to 17-15 on the season with one more game tomorrow at 3:00pm eastern time against seventh seeded Pomona-Pitzer to complete their stay in the championships.

The Seahawks hung with Loyola Marymount for a little while in large part to the effort by junior Billy Hoelck (San Diego, CA/U. of San Diego HS) who tied an NCAA tournament record with six goals in a single game. Hoelck scored her first goal of the day 4:46 into the contest to draw Wagner within a goal at 2-1. LMU added a score to go up 3-1 with a little over three minutes remaining in the first quarter.

Wagner turned to their twins, Stacey Travous (New Ulm, MN/Cumberland Valley) and Corrine Travous (New Ulm, MN/Cumberland Valley) for offense as the duo combined for back to back goals to tie the game at three with 2:16 on the first quarter clock. That would be as close as this one got as the Lions then ripped off six straight goals spanning the end of the first quarter and the start of the second. The bleeding was stopped when senior co-captain Natasha Peterson (Whittier, CA/La Habra) took a nifty pass from Camille Karimzad (Walnut Creek, CA/Campolindo) to score on a man up advantage. Following that, sophomore Nicole Maichrowicz (Temple City, CA/Temple City) ripped a shot past the Lion goalie to bring Wagner within shouting distance at 9-5.

Loyola Marymount tacked on a goal as the first half wound to a close and the teams came to intermission with Wagner in the deficit 10-5. The third quarter proved to be the proverbial nail in the coffin for the Seahawks as the Lions entered the water and proceeded to run off four straight goals and would eventually outscore Wagner in the period 7-1. The lone Seahawk score came from Hoelck.

Refusing to fold the tent Wagner came out firing to start the fourth quarter despite trailing 17-6. Hoelck went on a personal three goal run to draw the score to 17-9 in favor of the Los Angeles based school. LMU undaunted on the offensive end put together a three goal run of their own to repost the lead to 11 at 20-9. Hoelck closed the scoring with a tally at the 1:34 mark in the fourth and the contest came to an end in favor of the Lions at 20-10. Senior Katie Hauck (Pottsville, PA/Pottsville) did the job in net for Wagner corralling five shots and adding two steals.

Head Coach Patrick Beemer lamented the team's loss "You can't be happy with any loss and I know the girls were fired up and we had a horrific third quarter and came back better in the fourth, but it was too little too late. I had higher expectations to win this game and 20-10 is not that competitive."

The Seahawks will return to the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos tomorrow for a game at 3:00pm eastern time against Pomona-Pitzer. Wagner last did battle with Pomona-Pitzer in 2006 losing by a score of 10-8. The two teams have split four lifetime meetings.

Hoelck remained optimistic heading into tomorrow's game regardless of the opposition, "we came in as the eighth seed and we still have an opportunity to win a game in this tournament," she said.