LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Bucknell University women’s water polo team unleashed upon host/Division III No. 6-ranked Occidental College with an offensive onslaught as the Bison rolled the Tigers, 16-1, at the De Mandel Aquatics Center.
The Bison never trailed in the game as Bucknell opened up leads of 3-0, 6-0 and 13-1 by the conclusion of the first, second and third quarters, respectively, prior to putting the finishing touches with a 3-0 outburst in the fourth quarter for a commanding 15-goal victory.
Aliyah Cohen (three goals), Gwen Kallmeyer (three goals), Bella Schraa (two goals, one assist), Ashley Hopper (one goal, two assists), Catilin Stott (one goal), Nina Benson (one goal), Hayden Hedstrom (one goal), Olivia Garcia (one goal), Lin Naroaka (one goal), Brooke Temkin (one goal), Kenzi Shaw (one goal), Flora Beleznay (three assists), Ava Bayne (two assists) all factored on the offensive end of the tank, while goalkeeper Tamara Torkos stopped 15 shots in a complete game victory.
Across the tank, Rachel Khavinson accounted for the Tigers’ lone tally with goalkeepers Charlee Spence (eight minutes, three goals allowed, four saves) and Mia Bananis (24 minutes, 13 goals against, two saves) combined for six stops in net.
Bucknell wasted little time in putting Occidental behind the eight-ball as Cohen (7:02; 2:03, man-up) and Kallmeyer (6:21) connected for a trio of strikes to stake the Bison to a 3-0 margin eight minutes into the contest. Stott (5:27), Schraa (2:16) and Hedstrom (39 seconds) inflated the lead to 6-0 at the contest’s midway point prior to Schraa (7:39), Benson (6;54, man-up), Garcia (5:44), Temkin (4:15) and Shaw (3:35) expanding the spread to 11-0 in the third quarter.
Khavinson snapped the scoring spree with 2:02 left in the third quarter by converting a six-on-five bid, but the remainder of the game was the domain of the bovine as Kallmeyer (18 seconds) and Hopper (one second) made it 13-1 by the end of he third quarter.
Naroaka (4:00), Cohen (3:22) and Kallmeyer (12 seconds) drove home the final blows in the fourth quarter as Bucknell registered the team’s largest margin of victory since a 27-9 defeat of Mount St. Mary’s University on April 23, 2022 at home in a Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Championship placement game.
