HONOLULU, Hawaii – The LMU women's water polo season is officially one day in. The #12 Lions dropped the season-opener against #5 Hawaii, then rallied for a win against #T-23 Marist in the second game of the day.
GAME 1: #5 Hawaii 21, #12 LMU 5
After falling behind 3-0,
Alena Sanchez scored the first goal of the season for the Lions. The Wahine rattled off the next three before
Melyssa Moore closed out the first quarter with a goal with seven seconds remaining to make it a 6-2 game.
The home team scored all six goals in the second quarter to make it a 12-2 game at the half.
Hawaii scored the first goal of the third quarter before Sanchez converted consecutive goals to complete her hat trick.
Ryan-Marie Ickes scored LMU's final goal of the game, coming at the 2:49 mark of the third period.
GAME 2: #12 LMU 14, #T-23 Marist 8
LMU played from behind again in the second game as well. After Marist scored the game's first goal,
Melyssa Moore and
Alena Sanchez gave the lead with a pair of goals a minute apart from each other. The Red Foxes scored with a second remaining in the first period to tie game at 2-2.
Serena Zafiris pushed LMU back on top before consecutive goals by Marist flipped the lead the other way. The Lions responded with the final two goals of the half, with
Alexandra Akritidou scoring her first collegiate goal and Zafiris adding a second with 41 seconds remaining. LMU took a 3-2 lead into intermission.
The Lions used an explosive third quarter to put the game away. Following Marist's opening goal of the quarter, LMU scored the final five of the period to take a 10-5 lead into the final eight minutes. Akritidou and
Isabella Barajas each scored twice in the third quarter and Zafiris added third of the day.
The two sides traded off scoring the first six goals of the final session, with LMU finding a response to each Marist goal. Sanchez scored the first and fourth goal of the quarter for the Lions, with
Abbey Grosse and Akritidou also finding the back of the cage.
Elizabeth Bradley earned the win with 12 saves in her 32 minutes as LMU goalie.
Up Next
The Lions close out the Rainbow Invitational with a matchup against #14 Fresno State. The game will start at 9 a.m. local time (12 p.m. PST), with live stats available on TheFOSH.
