Sports In Briefs 8

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Author: Ryan Whalen

Baseball (18-8 overall, 9-6 SCIAC)

A week removed from its iron man duel with Rutgers-Newark, the Occidental baseball team took on conference rival Whittier College. The first of the three game series proved to be disheartening for the Tigers, as they dropped the game 4-3. Aside from a two-run homer off the bat of A.J. Libuano (sophomore), the team struggled to string together hits and overcome the 4-1 deficit they faced after the seventh inning. In Saturday’s doubleheader, however, the Tigers rebounded to take both games from Whittier with a combined score of 14-2. Senior Scott Hong started on the mound for the first time this season, giving up only one earned run and striking out five in a 3-1 victory. The black and orange also dominated the back end of the double header, invoking the mercy rule after eight innings of play to earn an 11-1 victory. Libuano once again led the offensive charge with three RBI on two hits while sophomores Chris Strain and Jonathon Brooks both drove in a pair of runs. The next time the Tigers dig into the batter’s box will be against Redlands this Friday at 5 p.m. at Anderson Field.


Women’s Lacrosse (5-7 overall, 3-2 SCIAC)

The sub .500 women’s lacrosse team showed its potential in last week’s games against a pair of non-conference opponents. The Tigers’ offense exploded in Wednesday’s win over Oberlin College, as the squad cruised to a 20-8 victory. The team enjoyed success on the shoulders of Tori Larson (junior) and Isabel Osgood-Roach (senior), who recorded six and five goals, respectively. The win also marked the team’s largest victory margin against a non-SCIAC opponent this season. However, the women faced heartbreak on Sunday as they lost an overtime thriller to Colorado College. With less than 10 seconds remaining in the game, Lauren Wemple assisted fellow senior Haley Gandsey as she was able to get position in front of the goal and net the game-tying point. Neither team was able to capitalize in overtime, forcing a second overtime and the implementation of the Golden Goal sudden-death rule. The Tigers were unable to stop Colorado College’s Elise Burchard, who scored the game-clinching goal to give her team an 11-10 victory. The Tigers host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

Women’s Water Polo (7-16 overall, 1-2 SCIAC)
The women’s water polo team dropped two close games to conference opponents this past week. Wednesday’s game turned out to be a back-and-forth battle with Redlands that went into overtime after the Bulldogs tied the contest in the final second of regulation. Occidental took an early overtime lead, but failed to hold on as Redlands outscored them 2-0 in the second overtime period and secured a 9-7 victory. The black and orange then faced off against Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday and found themselves struggling to keep up with the Sagehens, who bombarded goalkeeper Rachel Adeleye (senior) with shots. Adeleye was able to keep the Tigers within striking distance, though, as she accumulated 10 saves throughout the contest. Senior Nanea Fujiyama scored her fifth and final goal of the game to tie the game at seven with just under four minutes left. But the Tigers were not able to slow down the offense of the Sagehens and gave up two goals in the waning minutes to once again fall 9-7. The team travels to Whittier on Saturday at 11 a.m.

Softball (11-17 overall, 2-14 SCIAC)
In softball’s only action last week, the Tigers struggled to find their swing and were held scoreless in both games of Friday’s doubleheader against Whittier. Occidental dropped the first game 9-0 and could only muster one hit while committing three defensive errors. Though the Tigers were able to improve on their defensive inefficiency, they were no-hit in the second game and lost 12-0 in five innings via mercy rule. The team will look to get the bats going again this weekend in order to break an eight-game losing streak. The Tigers travel to Redlands on Friday for a doubleheader at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. and return home against Cal Lutheran on Saturday for a doubleheader at noon and 2 p.m.

Men’s Tennis (6-7 overall, 0-1 SCIAC)

The men’s tennis team finished its marathon schedule stint of 10 matches in 13 days on a three-match win streak, two of which ended in shutout victories for Occidental. The Tigers bounced back from a disappointing 6-3 loss to DePauw with a dominant 9-0 win over Pacific Lutheran. The team didn’t drop a single set on its way to its first sweep of the season. Two days later, the men battled through the loss of the nationally-ranked Josh Dancu (junior) due to illness to pull out a 5-4 win against Pacific. First-year Avery Howard filled the void by supplying a come-from-behind victory in the number six singles spot and teaming up with Kevin Zhao (sophomore) to take the number three doubles match-up. The Tigers were back to full strength on Saturday and rolled to their second sweep of the season with a 9-0 thrashing of Whitworth, yielding only one set in the contest.The team will look to extend its streak at Caltech on Friday at 2 p.m. and Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday at 10 a.m.

Rachel Adeleye
Senior goalkeeper Rachel “Raiye” Adeleye has acted as the
defensive anchor for the women’s water polo team throughout the past
three years and this season is no exception. With over 85 starts
in her college career, Adeleye has also shown that she is a durable
workhorse in the pool and with half a season remaining, the First Team
All-SCIAC goalie looks to make another run at conference accolades. In just three conference games this season, Adeleye has already
posted two games with over 10 saves. Though t
he Tigers struggled through most of their non-conference schedule against Division I and II opponents such as UC Irvine and Santa Clara, Adeleye’s ability to put up some of her best statistics this season kept the team in contention. The black and orange has since gained some momentum with the transition into league play and holds a 2-1 conference record. For the fourth year in a row, the veteran goalie is well on her way to breaking into triple digit saves while helping to lead a unit that hopes to rise in the SCIAC standings.

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