Matadors Face Pomona-Pitzer, Concordia at Cal Baptist Tournament

Saturday, January 30

Riverside, CA

9:15 a.m.

California State University at Northridge

Pomona-Pitzer

Photo by: CSUN Athletics

Matadors Face Pomona-Pitzer, Concordia at Cal Baptist Tournament

1/29/2016 1:36:00 PM | Women's Water Polo

NORTHRIDGE, CA---

CSUN Women's Water Polo (1-3) returns to the pool on Saturday for a pair of matches in the Cal Baptist Tournament in Riverside, CA. The Matadors begin the day with a 9:15 a.m. match against Pomona-Pitzer and end the day squaring off against Concordia at 3:30 p.m.

The Matadors completed their first weekend of the 2016 season last Saturday at the UCSB Winter Invite going 1-3. CSUN dropped the opener to Cal Baptist 10-5 on Friday but bounced back with a high-scoring 14-12 win over Azusa Pacific. On day two of the invite, the Matadors fell to Michigan 12-4 and their rally fell short in a 10-9 defeat to UC San Diego later in the day.

Heading into week two of the season, sophomore Madeleine Sanchez leads the team in goals scored with 10 tallies including shooting a team-best 52.6 percent to go along with three assists and five steals. Sanchez scored goals in each of the four games last weekend including striking the net five times against UC San Diego.

Sophomore Amy Yule finished the invite with seven goals and the tandem of Katelyn Fairchild and Shannon Hovanesian each posted four tallies. Fairchild led the team in assists with six and Hovanesian recorded 11 steals last weekend.

In net, sophomore Niki Van Vugt nearly matched her entire total of appearances from last season (5) by starting all four contests at goalkeeper at Santa Barbara. Van Vugt registered 33 saves in the four games including posting back-to-back nine save performances on day one.

The Matadors are a combined 14-1 against the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens and Concordia Eagles all-time. Against the Sagehens, CSUN is 8-1 including boasting an eight-game winning streak. Last season, the Matadors earned a 15-10 victory in February over the Sagehens as Yule posted four goals. The Matadors have never lost to the Eagles in six all-time meetings as CSUN earned a 21-12 victory in the teams' last meeting in March 2014.

The Sagehens open up their 2016 campaign against the Matadors on Saturday and enter the match ranked No. 1 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association's Division III Preseason Poll. Pomona-Pitzer has won four-straight Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships including earning a share of the title last season with Whittier. In 2015, the Sagehens went 19-10 and 10-1 in conference matches.

Concordia also begin their season on Saturday and are a season removed from finishing 6-19 in 2015. The Eagles are in their first season in the Golden Coast Conference and appointed Dreason Barry as the team's head coach last summer. Prior to facing the Matadors on Saturday afternoon, Concordia will face Loyola Marymount in a morning match.