The tournament was filled with unexpected upsets, with #2 Cal Lutheran playing #8 Cal Tech for the 7th place game, #1 Redlands ending up third, #4 CMS and #7 Whittier playing for the Championship (hey, 47!), and CMS winning the tournament overall.

As for the Sagehens, they started off strong with a 15-11 win over La Verne on Friday afternoon. Starting goalie Kyle Pokorny PO ’12 had two saves in the first half, then backup goalie Tyler Hill PI ’14 came in and played the rest of the game, blocking four attempts and assisting in a goal. Jarrod Gaut PI ’14 scored four goals and Ryan Balikian PO ’11 scored three. Ben Hadley PO ’11 was best all-around, with two goals, four assists, and three steals. Single goals came from Jason Cox PI ’13, Ryan Higgins PO ’14, Jaron Moler PO ’12, Cody Moore PO ’13, Mark Hudnall PO ’13, and Matt Ward PI ’11.

This win sent the #3 Hens into the semifinal round on Saturday evening against the Whittier Poets. Although The Poets were seeded 7th in the conference, they beat the Hens earlier in October and then upset #2 Cal Lutheran in the match before the Hens’ on Friday.

Compared to their last face-off against the Poets (during which they played catch-up the whole match), the Hens got a good start, slightly outscoring Whittier in the first half. Higgins went on a scoring run, scoring four of the Hens’ five goals of the game. Pokorny clocked a massive 13 saves. The fifth goal came from Balikian, but unfortunately the team couldn’t back Higgins up.

With less than 30 seconds left in the game, the Poets had possession and led 7-5. The Hens “pressed the steal,” taking the goalie out of the cage so he could defend someone in the field, allowing all seven players to play defense on all the Poets including the goalie. With mere seconds left in the game, Whitter scored its eighth goal with Pokorny out of the cage (which, if you ask me, was completely unnecessary), putting the icing on an 8-5 Whittier victory.

In another upset semifinal match, #4 CMS beat #1 Redlands 9-8. CMS went on to play Whittier in the championship game, while Redlands played the Hens Sunday afternoon.

The game against Redlands wasn’t overly violent, but as any Hens fan or player would tell you, the refereeing was less than fair. The game started to look frighteningly similar to last year’s women’s water polo championship game, when the Hens came back from a 4-8 deficit in the third quarter to tie the game at 9 near the end of the 4th. Head Coach Alex Rodriguez used a time out in the last possession to draw up an ingenious plan for a potential buzzer-beater, but the shot just missed the goal and the game was sent into overtime.

The two three-minute overtime quarters flew by for the spectators but probably not for the exhausted Bulldogs and Hens. Nobody scored in those six minutes, leaving the match tied at 9.

But somebody had to win. The game moved into two more three-minute quarters of sudden death. Redlands won the sprint and the Hens moved to defense. A successful drive by a Bulldog left him open in front of the cage, where he sent one of those ridiculous lob shots into the cross-cage corner. Redlands won 10-9 within the first 30 seconds of sudden-death overtime. Overall, Pokorny added another 12 impressive saves and two steals. Dylan O’Connell PO ’14 led the team with three goals, followed by Gaut and Hadley with two, and Moler and Balikian with 1. Sprinter Hudnall also had three steals.

The graduating Sagehens—Balikian, Hadley, Ward, and Mike Gormally PO ’11—would naturally have liked to win their last college match at Haldeman pool. That’s not saying they didn’t give their best effort—you could hear their heated pump-up speeches at halftime from the stands. But playing a total of 38-and-a-half minutes (not counting clock-stopping fouls, breaks, etc.) in a normally 32-minute match and taking a game to sudden death overtime is definitely something to be proud of.

Not that the season’s over for the Hens. This weekend they head to Santa Clara University for the WWPA Championships, where they’re seeded 6th out of 10, above both Redlands and Whittier. Their chance at redemption and glory lives on.