#23 CSUN Begins Convergence Tournament with Two Wins

Friday, March 6

Los Angeles, Calif.

2:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

Iona

CSUN

Photo by: Steve Fitzgerald

#23 CSUN Begins Convergence Tournament with Two Wins

3/6/2026 11:25:00 PM | Women's Water Polo

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

LOS ANGELES, Calif.---No. 23 CSUN Water Polo opened the Convergence Tournament, hosted by Occidental College, with two victories on Friday at De Mandel Aquatics Center. The Matadors defeated Iona in a high-scoring 15-13 decision while they closed the day by besting host Occidental 21-3.

Freshman Ella Furuholmen finished with seven goals to lead the offense on Friday while goalkeeper Erika Staine totaled 15 saves combined on the day.

CSUN-IONA RECAP
The Matadors would find themselves trailing early as Iona staked to a 2-0 lead at the start. Mira Dravucz netted CSUN's first goal of the match and later added another tally late in the period, but the Gaels outscored the Matadors 6-3 in the first period. The Matadors began to battle back in the second quarter, using a pair of goals from Furuholmen and another Dakota Bumbaca to pull to within 7-6.

CSUN trailed 8-7 at the break but continued to surge in the third quarter. A 4-0 run to start the period, led by three tallies from Furuholmen gave CSUN an 11-8 lead. Nicole Morrison scored Iona's only goal of the third period with 4:23 to go, but CSUN answered with two straight goals from Kianna Melvin and a late strike from Sofia Martinez to lead 14-9. A five-meter penalty goal from Marjorie Krueger extended the Matador lead to 15-9 in the fourth quarter. A late 4-0 surge from Iona in the final five-plus minutes would not be enough to catch the Matadors.

CSUN-OCCIDENTAL RECAP
The Matadors led wire-to-wire in defeating Occidental in the nightcap on Friday. The trio of Krueger, Sophia Cooper and Raygan Caroll each had hat tricks in the dominant victory. CSUN built a 5-0 lead though the first quarter of action and eventually extended to an 11-0 lead with 51 seconds remaining in the first half. Occidental broke up the shutout on a goal from Emma Wilderman, but the Matadors took a 10-goal lead (11-1) into halftime.

Alexis Smith and Abigel Kiss opened the third period scoring for CSUN to stretch the lead further to 13-1. The Matadors held Occidental to just one goal in the third period while they scored five of their own as the lead stood at 16-2 through 24 minutes. The fourth quarter scoring saw five more CSUN goals scored, all of which by freshmen. Krueger completed her hat trick with 4:13 to go for CSUN's 20th goal while Furuholmen netted the game's final goal with less than 90 seconds remaining, bringing her Friday scoring tally to seven.

NOTES OF THE GAMES

CSUN improves to 13-5 after the two victories.
Furuholmen finished with a game-high five goals in the win over Iona while Melvin chipped in four.
In front of the cage, Staine had 12 saves to help beat Iona.
A total of 11 Matadors recorded goals against Occidental. Dravucz, Furuholmen, Smith and Martinez each had two-goal performances.
All three CSUN goalkeepers saw action against Occidental with Staine leading the way with 16 minutes of action and three saves. Marin Byars totaled four saves and Kiana Kellner finished with three in their respective stints at goalkeeper.

ACCORDING TO COACH MATT WARSHAW
On the Iona game
"Falling behind 4-1 in the first quarter felt like a hangover from last night's disappointing loss [to Villanova]. Nonetheless, I'm proud of how we handled some adversity and battled our way back into the game to earn the win. Winning is hard and we're learning how to do it."

On the Occidental game
"Great performance from the entire roster. Quick turnaround and two more tomorrow."

UP NEXT
CSUN completes the Convergence Tournament on Saturday with matches scheduled against Salem University at 9:45 a.m. and UC Merced at 2:45 p.m.

#GoMatadors