PASADENA, Calif. — The Penn State Behrend women’s water polo team earned the program’s first win of the 2022 season as the Lions utilized six different goal scorers in a 12-8 victory at the California Institute of Technology.
Shannon Young (Jr., Roseville, Calif./Roseville) led all scorers in goals and points, scoring five times and adding two helpers for a total of seven points.
The Lions never trailed in the game as Marley Persch (Fr., Hudsonville, Mich./Hudsonville) broke the ice with 6:34 left in the first quarter to stake Penn State Behrend to a 1-0 lead. Emma Gurcan answered for the Beavers via a man-up tally at 4:43, but Kayla Scarpaci (Jr., Cypress, Texas/Langham Creek) unloaded a go-ahead strike at 4:29 to push the Lions ahead at 2-1.
Amanda Piyapanee put away an equalizer off another man-up chance at 4:17, but Young drilled in another go-ahead marker at 2:08 to put Penn State Behrend ahead to stay at 3-2.
Brooklyn Mocny (So., Sunnyvale, Calif./Homestead) closed out the first quarter by beating the horn with three ticks left on the clock for a 4-2 margin after eight minutes of action.
Persch (7:08), Young (6:35) and Olivia Wright (So., Fairview, Pa./Fairview) commenced the second quarter with back-to-back-to-back scores to widen the gap to 7-2.
Riya Shirvastava snapped the Lions’ scoring run at 3:11 with the Beavers’ third man-up tally of the contest to close within 7-3. However, Young buried shots at 2:27 and 1:36 before Gurcan countered with 18 seconds left for a 9-4 score by halftime.
The offensive pace slowed in the second half as Persch (7:13), Lana Lubecke (6:23), Gurcan (4:07, man-up) and Young (3:32) landed blows to keep it a five-goal game (11-6) heading into the final eight minutes of regulation.
Emily McNaughton (Jr., Wexford, Pa./Pine-Richland) capped off Behrend’s offensive exploits at the 5:15 mark of the fourth quarter prior to Piyapanee (1:12) and Shirvastava (25 seconds) swishing shots for Caltech to close the final margin to 12-8.
For the Lions, Persch joined Young in posting hat-tricks, while Scarpaci, Wright, McNaughton and Mocny each managed solo markers.
Goalie Chloe Dodgen (Jr., Riverside, Calif./Hillcrest) made 13 saves and chipped in a game-high five assists.
Across the tank, Gurcan deposited a trio of tallies with Shirvastava and Piyapanee both netting pairs. Lubecke tacked on a goal with netminder Zoe Rock turning away 14 shots and handing out an assist in the loss.
