PASADENA, Calif. — Olivia Wright scored three times, but the California Institute of Technology received four strikes by Amanda Plyapanee and trios from Mia Mutadich, Tyler Fox, Emma Gurcan and Madelyn Gilbert to outlast and overcome Penn State Behrend by a 17-11 score at Braun Pool.
The Beavers never trailed in the contest by opening up a 3-0 lead by the 4:39 mark of the first quarter to stymie the Lions.
Mutadich (7:50, 4:39) and Fox (6:27) opened the scoring with back-to-back-to-back even-strength scores prior to PSB’s Emily McNaughton putting her team on the board at 4:26. Fox (4:04) and Riya Shrivastava (3:22) answered with consecutive tallies by Caltech to build the margin to 5-1 prior to Marley Persch (1:23) and Nic Darrell (36 seconds) swishing shots to move the Lions back to within 5-3 after eight minutes of competition.
Gurcan (6:18) doubled-up Penn State Behrend at 6-3 to begin the second quarter, but Susie Carrillo (5:53, man-up) and Darrell (5:03) connected on back-to-back scoring chances to pull the Lions back to within one at 6-5.
However, Caltech dominated the remainder of the first half as Gilbert (4:03), Gurcan (1:49) and Plyapanee (42 seconds) rained in three markers in the waning moments of the second quarter to stake the Beavers to a 9-5 lead at the break.
Penn State Behrend responded in kind to commence the second half as Darragh Martin (6:05), Wright (4:36) and McNaughton (3:53) ticked off a trio of tallies to once again move the Lions to within a goal of tying Caltech at 9-8.
Plyapanee (3:13, 2:13), Wright (2:52, 43 seconds) and Fox (19 seconds) landed scoring shots in the closing minutes of the frame as Caltech entered the final eight minutes of regulation with a 12-10 margin.
Gilbert (7:35), Plyapanee (7:07, man-up) and Gurcan (6:36) further padded the lead to 15-10 prior to Persch punching in a shot at 5:45 to shrink the difference to four (15-11).
Mutadich (2:06) and Gilbert (one second) iced the victory down the stretch with goals as Caltech claimed a six-score win.
For Penn State Behrend, Wright (three), Darrell (two), McNaughton (two) and Persch (two) accounted for multi-goal games. Martin and Carrillo chipped in solo markers in support a four save effort by netminder Kieffer Beckman.
Caltech received multi-goal games from Plyapanee (four), Mutadich (three), Fox (three), Gurcan (three) and Gilbert (three) to go along with a single score by Shrivastava. Mahi Ravi stopped nine shots to claim victory in the cage.
