Courtesy: Redlands Athletics
The University of Redlands women’s water polo team welcomed the Regals of Cal Lutheran University to the Thompson Aquatic Center on Saturday morning for an 11 a.m. contest. Before the start of the game, the Bulldogs celebrated the careers and accomplishments of senior attackers Kelly Klish (Glenview, IL), Sarah Draves (Fallbrook, CA), and Katelynn Holloman (Wildomar, CA). Despite winning all four sprints and taking nearly the same amount of shots, the Bulldogs ended up on the losing end of a 4-13 score.
Sophomore attacker Katrina Nielsen (Houston, TX) started the game off strong with her first of four winning sprints to put the Bulldogs on offense from the get-go. Junior attacker Holly Kvanvig (Beaverton, OR) let one fly quickly after but it hit the crossbar.
Although Cal Lutheran went up by two, Klish drew an exclusion at 3:42 to give Redlands the advantage. Junior attacker Ally Feeley (Menlo Park, CA) passed it to Kvanvig, who found the back of the net for the power-play goal to cut the deficit in half, 1-2.
But momentum began to shift in favor of the visiting team as they distanced the spread to 7-1 Regals. First-year attacker Kaitlynn Pierceall (Beaumont, CA) fired off a solo goal with :52 seconds left in the second stanza for a 2-7 score at the midway break.
Holloman kicked off the third-period scoring, putting one past the Regal keeper at 6:14. The Bulldog defense stepped up in the third, only allowing two CLU scores for a 3-9 tally.
Holloman also assisted Redlands’ fourth quarter goal from Nielsen. But the Regals built a large enough lead over the four quarters to ultimately hand Redlands a 4-13 loss.
Sophomore goalkeeper Tori Zielinski (Sunnyvale, CA) made 12 stops and snagged two steals in the contest.
The Bulldogs (1-1) head to Chapman University on Saturday, April 10, for an 11 a.m. game.
