ST. PAUL, Minn. — Monmouth College lifted the lid on its 2020 women’s water polo season by falling to Division III No. 5-ranked the University of La Verne, 20-3, and fellow Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) institution Carthage College, 13-11, on the first day of the Macalester College Invitational.
Taking on the nationally-ranked Leopards of La Verne in the Fighting Scots’ season-opener, Monmouth fell behind early and was never able to recover.
Trailing 7-0 at the conclusion of the first quarter, the Fighting Scots fell behind 9-0 by halftime and were put on their heels 12-0 before a pair of goals shaved the deficit down to 12-2 heading into the fourth quarter of play.
La Verne responded to Monmouth’s back-to-back tallies by ripping off six-straight strikes to open the final eight minutes of action to pull ahead 18-2 with 4:00 left on the clock. The Fighting Scots chipped their deficit back to 18-3 at the 3:24 mark, but a final pair of volleys from the Leopards locked up a 20-3 victory.
Becca Waxberg (Fr., St. Louis, Mo./Parkway Central) connected for a pair of goals in the game, while Miranda Pasky (Jr., Paso Robles, Calif./Paso Robles) scored once.
Facing Carthage, the Fighting Scots fell behind 2-0, rallied back to knot the contest at two-all and trailed 4-2 at the conclusion of the first quarter in a game which featured a back-and-forth style of play.
Monmouth staged another comeback to square the score at four-all with 5:12 to go in the second quarter, but back-to-back-to-back-to-back strikes by the Lady Reds over the remainder of the first half provided Carthage an 8-4 lead at intermission.
The lead proved critical to the Lady Reds’ ability to stymie Monmouth in the second half as the Fighting Scots began jabbing back to punch its way back within one at 8-7 by the 3:08 mark of the third quarter.
However, goals by Carthage at 2:26 and 1:33 of the third quarter followed by another tally 55 seconds into the fourth quarter widened the gap to 11-7.
Monmouth continued to fight back by closing out the game with back-to-back goals at 1:10 and 46 seconds to trim the final margin down to a pair at 13-11.
Ashling Staunton (Fr., Chicago, Ill./William H. Taft) led the way for Monmouth with a hat-trick (three goals). Skylar Rapp (So., Oxnard, Calif./Oxnard), Marissa Logan (So., Elmhurst, Ill./York) and Waxberg all posted pairs of markers with Pasky and Brittany Lira (Sr., Midlothian, Ill./Bremen) each finding the back of the cage once.
