Cal Maritime ends championship weekend in third place, four Keelhaulers earn All-Tournament Team honors
NAIA West Invitational Results
Sunday, April 14
UC Merced 16, Cal Maritime 6 (Third Place)
OUAZ 9, UC Merced 8 (Championship Game)
Saturday, April 13
OUAZ 19, Cal Maritime 3
OUAZ 14, UC Merced 8
UC Merced 17, Cal Maritime 4
VALLEJO, Calif. – Cal Maritime enjoyed a late scoring charge when Meghan Abbott, Anjali Sharma and Ryan Wallace found the back of the cage throughout the fourth period of Sunday's NAIA West Invitational match at PEAC Pool, but an early lead built by UC Merced held throughout the entire game to help the Bobcats defeat the Keelhaulers, 16-6.
By winning that matchup, UC Merced captured this season's Cal Pac Conference women's water polo title and earned a berth in Sunday's NAIA championship match against Ottawa University (AZ).
In that NAIA Invitational championship contest, OUAZ edged UC Merced, 9-8, to successfully defend its title.
When action concluded, tournament officials announced this year's Cal Pac All-Tournament Team, a list that included Abbott, Cate Andersson, and Wallace. Once the Invitational ended, Sharma was featured on its All-Tournament Team.
Cal Maritime experienced a rough start to the day since UC Merced scored all four goals throughout the opening period and maintained that cushion throughout the rest of the match.
Sharma scored the first of her team-high three goals midway through the second quarter, and once again with just under three minutes left in the third.
Sandwiched between those strikes was a goal from Abbott, the first of her two scored throughout the second half.
Andersson recorded six saves in her team's final game of the season but a limited roster, due to injuries sustained throughout the weeks leading up to this tournament, created a tight rotation for the Keelhaulers all weekend long. This extra workload, combined with minimal subs ultimately caught up to Cal Maritime in the final week of the season.
Even though this weekend's results did not fall CSUM's way, the program will celebrate a successful season that includes an eight-game win streak and back-to-back tournament championships, earned in consecutive weekends, for the first time in recorded program history.
Cal Pac Championship All-Tournament Team
Cal Maritime
Meghan Abbott
Cate Andersson
Ryan Wallace
UC Merced
Hope Stokes – MVP
Liberty Hamilton
Aislyn Sorsky
Melanie Torres
Cal Pac Specialty Award
Johnny Bega – Cal Pac Coach of the Year
NAIA West Invitational All-Tournament Team
Ottawa University (AZ)
Tori Higginson
Jennifer Liu
Jasmine Miller
Kendall Patrick
UC Merced
Liberty Hamilton
Hope Stokes
Melanie Torres
Cal Maritime
Anjali Sharma
NAIA West Invitational Specialty Awards
Jennifer Liu – Tournament MVP (OUAZ)
Hope Stokes – Defensive MVP (UC Merced)
Cate Andersson – Team MVP (Cal Maritime)
Liberty Hamilton – Team MVP (UC Merced)
Kendall Patrick – Team MVP (OUAZ)
UC Merced 16, Cal Maritime 6
Cal Maritime Scoring
Anjali Sharma 3; Meghan Abbott 2; Ryan Wallace 1
UC Merced Scoring
Liberty Hamilton 5; Piper Ferris, Liberty Hamilton, Hope Stokes 3; Arianna Martinez, Aislyn Sorsky 1