ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — The No. 5-ranked Augustana College Vikings women’s water polo team was defeated in the USA Water Polo Division III Collegiate Championship national semifinals in falling to the Division III No. 2 ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges Athenas by a score of 20-9.
“This was a game of very slim margins,” said head coach Ryan Pryor in a postgame press conference. “We had an opportunities that we missed and they were able to get counter opportunities off the mistakes we made. It was one of those things if you make enough of those mistakes, the margin gets bigger. I thought we did a lot of good things to create those opportunities.”
In their second meeting of the season, the Athenas got our to a fast start, outscoring the Vikings 4-1 in each of the first and second quarters. Casey Barragan broke up a 3-0 run in the opening frame with a goal six minutes, but CMS answered with four straight scores to move the margin to six. Ocean Akau notched a late goal with 20 seconds left in the half to cut the score to 8-2 at intermission.
After four straight goals from the Athenas to begin the third quarter, the Vikings strung together a 3-0 run of their own, seeing tallies from Carli Udovich, Barragan, and Abbey Ellis over the span of 90 seconds. The two teams traded scores to close out the third quarter, with Barragan grabbing her third of the game with just five seconds to spare to bring the score to 13-6.
CMS pushed their lead back out to nine to begin the final quarter, but two goals in a row from Barragan and Annie Opal Dickson reset the margin to seven. Victoria Guest added a score less than a minute, but the Athenas outscored the Vikings 5-1 to close out the final three minutes of action to complete the 20-9 victory.
Barragan led the Augie offense with four goals on nine shots, while Akau and Charlotte Newport each contributed three assists. Lizzie Pelzman stopped 12 shots in net for the Vikings.
“I thought we did a lot of great things and I think every game is a learning opportunity to get better for the future,” Newport added postgame.
With the loss, Augustana drops to 16-6 on the season and will face the Division III No. 8 ranked Austin College Kangaroos on Sunday, May 7, at 10:00 a.m. in the third-place game. The Vikings won two of the three meetings between the two this season.
Following the championship game the All-Tournament Team was announced:
Most Valuable Player: Abigail Wiesenthal (Pomona-Pitzer Colleges)
Alexandra Szczerba (Pomona-Pitzer Colleges)
Namlhun Jachung (Pomona-Pitzer Colleges)
Christina Kulick (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges)
Cooper McKenna (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges)
Casey Barragan (Augustana College)
Carli Udovich (Augustana College)
Alyssa Ross (Austin College)
Release courtesy Augustana College Athletics Communications
