Women’s Water Polo tops Occidental, 8-5

LA VERNE, Calif. — Hailey Westwood came up big in the cage, the defense was airtight and the University of La Verne women's water polo team defeated Occidental, 8-5, on Wednesday at La Verne Aquatics Center.

La Verne improves to 3-2 in the SCIAC and 5-10 overall. It's the first season in recent memory the Leopards notched at least three SCIAC wins and the first win over the Tigers in over eight years.

The Tigers fall to 1-21 overall and 0-5 in SCIAC play.

Westwood parried away almost every shot that came her way, tallying 15 total saves.

The Leopards were solid in the field as well, getting hands on shots, coming up with big steals and forcing Oxy to settle for long-range shots.

Lora Marquez-Salgado led the way on offense with her second hat trick in a row.

Megan Little chipped in two goals. Maddie Lovrensky, Catie Tuning and Amber Tardif each had one.

After La Verne took a 3-2 lead into the break and opened a two-goal lead late in the third quarter on goals by Lovrensky and Marquez-Salgado, the Tigers took the momentum back and evened the game at 5-5 halfway into the fourth quarter.

But with just under three minutes left, Tardif received the ball near the right post and beat Oxy goalie Anna De Groot with a lob shot to the far post to score the game-winner.

Marquez-Salgado added a goal thirty seconds later and Tuning sealed it with a point-blank shot with 35 seconds left in the game.

La Verne returns to action on Saturday at Pomona-Pitzer at 11 a.m.