Women's Water Polo Drops Pair to No. 17 Pacific

STOCKTON, Calif. - The Austin College women's water polo team fell twice at the University of the Pacific, ranked No. 17 in the nation at the Division I level, on Sunday morning in the team's first action of the 2021 campaign. The 'Roos fell 16-6 in the opening game and then came up short in game two, dropping a 19-14 decision.

In the first game of the day, the 'Roos found themselves trailing 5-0 after the first quarter and 11-0 at halftime before finding the net three times in the third quarter to cut it to a 12-3 game. Brooke Le tallied twice and Sophie Oliver also put one in the back of the cage in the quarter, and Oliver scored three more times in the fourth to help make it a 16-6 final score. Valery Piachonkina had 13 blocks in the loss, while five different players recorded an assist each.

The 'Roos trailed 7-1 after the opening quarter in game two with Oliver continuing her hot start to the year, finding the net early on. Lexi Wong scored to open up the second quarter, and Cory McGrath scored twice to trim it to an 11-4 game at halftime. Pacific pushed the margin to 16-7 after three quarters, with Oliver scoring two more goals while Kylee Noble also found the back of the net. Madison Taylor scored twice to open up the fourth and McGrath followed that up with two goals of her own, with a Le goal being scored in between two more tallies by Oliver, who finished the game with five goals for the 'Roos.

Overall on the day, Oliver finished with nine goals while McGrath scored four times and Le tallied three goals in total.