GROVE CITY, Pa. — The Division III No. 10-ranked Washington & Jefferson College women’s water polo team finished 2-0 on day one of the final Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division III weekend at Grove City College’s James E. Longnecker Pool . The Presidents took down Carthage College, 17-9, prior to outlasting defending CWPA Division III Champion/Division III No. 6 Augustana College, 9-8.
The first day sweep extends the Presidents’ win streak to six contests.
Facing Carthage, W&J hopped out to an ample 8-2 lead in the first half by limiting the Firebirds’ offense to just a goal in each quarter.
Emmie Ratcliff (Friendswood, Texas Friendswood), Anastacia Didovich (Venice, Fla./Venice), Emma Halle (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny), Sydney Neumann (Long Beach, Calif./Millikan) each recorded a goal in the first quarter, respectively.
Emmie Ratcliff netted another goal for the first score of the second quarter. Carthage responded with their only goal in the eight-minute span. Laura Anthony (Erie, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) joined the offensive efforts next, netting a penalty goal at the 1:46 mark, 6-2. Halle and Hallie Ratcliff (Friendswood, Texas Friendswood) added two for the Presidents in the final moments of the first half.
Halle found the goal one last time for the Red & Black in game one, notching the first hat trick to set the score at 9-3. Hallie Ratcliff netted the next two goals for the Presidents, claiming the second W&J hat trick of the day. The Firebirds strung together two goals to cut the deficit to 11-5 with 44 seconds left in the third quarter. Didovich answered for W&J scoring the final goal of the quarter as the play clock hit 18 seconds, 12-5.
The Presidents put up five more goals in the last leg of play to claim the 17-9 victory. Hallie Ratcliff (two), Anthony (one), Mekkiye Ergun (Chicago, Ill./Lake View) (one) and Autumn Woollcott (Grand Blanc, Mich./Grand Blanc) (one) all scored in the final eight-minute quarter.
Taking on the defending CWPA Division III Champion Vikings, Washington & Jefferson kept pace with Augustana as the teams played to a one-all tie after eight minutes of competition. Augustana scored first at the 1:33 mark before Anthony accounted for the lone W&J shortly after with 1:12 left in the opening quarter.
Halle added a marker that was followed up with two consecutive goals from Emmie Ratcliff gave the Presidents a 4-1 lead. Augustana tried to eliminate the deficit but was only able to cut the lead to 4-3 before the end of the first half.
Despite two more goals from Emmie Ratcliff, Augustana netted three goals to knot the score at six leading into the final quarter of play.
Didovich tallied the first score of the fourth quarter. Halle extended the Presidents lead to 8-6 with 3:34 left in the game. The Vikings found the back of the net to close within one at 8-7. Anthony scored the winning strike for the Presidents as the strike coupled with good defense down the stretch helped W&J to outlast the Vikings, 9-8.
Alliey Cunningham (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township) received both wins in goal for the Presidents improving her record to 9-3 on the season.
Information courtesy Washington & Jefferson College Athletics Communications
