Feb. 23, 2003

Los Angeles, CA - After losing to No. 4 Long Beach State yesterday, the No. 5 California women's water polo team rebounded to defeat No. 6 Loyola Marymount, 7-3, this afternoon, Feb. 23 at the Burns Recreation and Aquatics Center in Los Angeles. Sophomore Jodie Needles and freshman Allison Gold led the Bears with two goals apiece.

The difference for the Bears was All-American goalie Lauren Dennis. The junior recorded five saves in the decisive fourth quarter and finished with 11 in the game to keep the Lions from getting the equalizer. Cal's Gold scored the eventual game winner in the third quarter to help the Bears improve to 4-3 on the season. The Lions fall to 5-4 on the year.

Both squads traded goals in the first period. Cal got on the board first with an even-strength goal by Needles. The Lions answered on the man-advantage, scoring with 3:26 left in the first frame on a goal from Julia Wald.

The Lions would take the 2-1 lead when junior Devon Wright scored with 3:14 left in the first half. The Bears would answer with two goals in the final two minutes to take the 3-2 lead. Needles tallied her second goal of the day and team-leading 13th of the year while sophomore Cara Chlebicki scored with 1:54 remaining to give the Bears the 3-2 advantage going into the intermission.

LMU answered with another man-advantage goal with 2:58 remaining in the third period when sophomore Jessica Conner found the back of net, slipping one past Dennis. But Dennis and the Bears would take over from there. Gold gave Cal a 4-3 lead with 1:10 remaining on a man-advantage tally. Dennis would then stop the Lions' Wright on an extra-man attack from point-blank range giving the ball back to the Bears with less than 30 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Junior Lindy Spieker closed the quarter with her first goal of the season at the buzzer to give Cal a 5-3 lead.

Trailing by two, the Lions had their chances. With less than four minutes remaining junior Jamie Kroeze put up three shots from two-meters, but Dennis came of huge between the pipes to block them all. Gold scored again with 2:34 remaining and freshman Brittany Hansen found the back of the net on a four-meter penalty shot for the final score.

Cal returns to action on Sunday, March 2 at 2:00 p.m. as the Bears travel to UC Irvine to tackle the Anteaters in an MPSF matchup.

BOX SCORE:

	   1	  2	3	4	T
CAL (4-3)	   1	  2	2	2	7
LMU (5-4)	   1	  1	1	0	3

CAL Scoring: Jodie Needles 2, Allison Gold 2, Brittany Hansen, Lindy Spieker, Cara Chlebicki.
LMU Scoring: Devon Wright, Jessica Conner, Julia Wald.
Goalie Saves: Lauren Dennis (CAL) 11; Rachel Riddell (LMU) 7.