ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Carthage College women’s water polo team dropped the first match of the season 12-10 against Division III No. 7-ranked/three-time defending Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division III Champion/host Macalester College before collecting a 13-11 win over Monmouth College at Leonard Natatorium during the first day of the 2020 Macalester Invitational.
The Lady Reds began game one with a 3-1 lead over Macalester with goals from Megan Cales, Nell Behr and Meghan Fisher. In the second quarter, Cales added her second goal of the game to put the visitors up 4-2. Macalester rallied to tie the game at four and took control of the game at 6-5. The Scots added another goal to extend the margin to 7-5 in the third quarter, but Cales scored her third goal to make it 7-6. With the score 10-8 in favor of the Scots, the Lady Reds put in another goal to narrow the deficit to one but Macalester went on to take the game 12-10.
In the second game of the day, Carthage started with a 2-0 lead until Monmouth rallied to the game at two-all. The Lady Reds retaliated scoring two goals to take a 4-2 lead into the second quarter. Carthage scored four goals from Fisher, Behr, Cales, and Morgan Fingerson to go up 8-4 by halftime.
The Fighting Scots scored three-straight goals to shrink the lead to 8-7 in the opening moments of the third quarter. Two goals from Cales and Arianna Dakuras pushed the Lady Reds advantage back up to 10-7. Later in the quarter, Cales put in another goal in the forth to give the visitors a 11-7 margin. Goals from Fingerson, Dakuras and Cales extended the margin to 13-9 on the way to a 13-11 win.
“It was a good outing for us to start the season,” stated Carthage head coach Ryan Castle.
“Anytime you can score 10 goals, that’s a good offensive output. So overall I was happy with how we competed in both games, but a little disappointed with our collective defensive organization. But that will come as we play more games and improve individually and collectively. Emma Jeronimus really played well in the cage throughout the day. Megan Cales was outstanding in the field and really helped spark the team offensively.”
Cales led the way for the Lady Reds on the day as she registered 13 goals, three assists, two steals and three ejections drawn. Fingerson chipped in with two goals and an assist.
Jeronimus tallied 39 saves, two of which were penalty shot saves and five steals.
The victory over Monmouth in the second game marked the first win at Carthage for Castle.
Release courtesy Carthage College Athletics Communications
