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Biola water polo beats gannon 17-7
7
Gannon GAN (6-17)
17
Winner Biola BU (15-14)
Gannon GAN
(6-17)
7
Final
17
Biola BU
(15-14)
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Gannon GAN 1 3 1 2 7
Biola BU 7 3 4 3 17

Game Recap: Women's Water Polo |

Eagles Outscore Everyone

Biola's 17 goals on day one is the most of any team at the WWPA Championships.

O'FALLON, Illinois — Biola Women's Water Polo is 100 percent full speed ahead as it opens play at the Western Water Polo Association Championships. The Eagles scored 17 goals in a win over No. 4 seed Gannon in an opening round matchup on Friday.

The 17 scores is the most of any winning team during the first day of competition. No other team scored more than 10 goals total in the other three contests. The win allows Head Coach Sarah Orozco's team to advance to the WWPA Semifinals on Saturday afternoon.

Kourtney Pyle was the big star in this one. The Eagles' senior, and the conference's leading goal-scorer, found the twine six times in leading her team to victory. Incredibly, it's the third time this season that Pyle has scored six in a contest. Her career-best was an eight-piece against CSU East Bay in 2022.

Biola scored six-consecutive goals to open the game in dominant fashion. Gannon would get on the board with 1:18 left in the first period, but ultimately the Eagles would lead 7-1 after just eight minutes. Pyle accounted for five of the Eagles' seven goals in that first period.

The lead ballooned out to 9-1 early in the second period as Biola continued to get strong goalkeeping from Samantha Rainey and great pressure put out by its defense. A Kaycie Bradshaw score was the Eagles' ninth and the one that really began to put the match firmly out of reach for the East Region's no. 4 seed.

The second period was Gannon's best in the afternoon as the Golden Knights would manage to match the Eagles' second quarter scoring (3-3).

Both teams made goalie switches in advance of the final 16 minutes of play. Biola just kept putting the ball in the back of the net, though, outscoring Gannon 7-3 in the second half. 

Biola scored on about 50 percent of its shots today. The 17 goals came on 35 attempts. BU was 3-for-6 on 6-on-5 chances as well. In the fourth quarter Biola was called for six exclusions to bring the team total to 11, despite good discipline early in the contest.

Veralie Naranjo had three goals while Bradshaw and Mattie Herzog added a pair apiece to help the Eagles' scoring effort. Herzog took two shots and scored two goals in an efficient offensive effort. Maria Roldan Gonzalez and Lizzy Birch did what they always do, setting up three goals each. Roldan Gonzalez also had four steals and Spadt three.

This match was a rematch of last year's opening round meeting between Eagles and Golden Knights. Biola is now 2-0 all-time against Gannon as they won last year's meeting 14-8.

Up next for the Eagles is a 12:15 p.m. match against Fresno Pacific on Saturday in the WWPA semifinals. Biola beat FPU twice this year in a pair of tight conference matches. On March 28 BU managed a 10-7 win at FPU and then on senior day the Eagles set down the Sunbirds 9-7 in a thriller.

Follow all the WWPA Championship action at this Championship Central webpage.
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