March has passed, but the Penn State women's water polo club team is experiencing its own bit of madness right now. With a 10-9 defeat of West Chester Sunday, the team clinched the Mid-Atlantic Division title and a berth in the Collegiate Water Polo Association national tournament.
Sunday's win concluded a weekend of play for top-seeded Penn State, which won all three of its matches in a two-day span. During Saturday's two games, the team defeated fourth-seeded West Chester University, 11-5, and fifth-seeded Bloomsburg, 11-3. Penn State co-captain Nicole Woomer scored nine of the team's 11 goals in the victory against Bloomsburg.
"We played very well overall as a team and were able to use our depth as an advantage," Penn State co-captain Sara Fritz said.
After winning each of the two games on Saturday, Penn State played in the championship game Sunday. West Chester won its remaining matches on Saturday to set up a rematch with Penn State, this time for the division title and a shot at the national title. However, having played each other on Saturday, the two teams had a better feel for each other entering Sunday's action.
"We knew who to watch for from West Chester, and they were more pumped up to play us, which led to a much better game than the first," Fritz said.
Penn State jumped out to an early lead when Woomer scored just 2:15 into the seven-minute first quarter. It appeared as though Woomer would get her second goal just seconds later, but her shot deflected off the post and into the hands of teammate Lauren Demoss. Demoss put the ball past the keeper and gave Penn State a 2-0 lead. West Chester rallied to score a goal and ended the first quarter trailing 3-1.
Penn State came out shooting again in the second quarter, when Jenna Reitz fired a shot to the back of the net to make the score 4-1. Reitz scored later in the period, this time putting the ball past the goalie in the top corner of the net to make the score 5-2 in Penn State's favor.
West Chester was again able to score a late goal, this time on a break away with just 0:26 left in the period, to cut the margin to 5-3.
The second half began with West Chester firing a barrage of shots at Penn State goalie Kerry Slover. Slover batted away two shots on consecutive West Chester possessions midway through the period and finished the day with 11 saves.
West Chester tied the score at five with 3:36 remaining in the quarter, but found itself a player down when a major foul sent a defender off for 0:20.
Penn State capitalized on the opportunity, scoring just seconds later to give itself a 6-5 lead. The third quarter ended with Penn State in front of West Chester, 7-6.
The final four minutes of the fourth quarter proved to be the most maddening of the match, as West Chester evened the score at 7-7, and then again at 8-8 with 2:05 left in the game. Just seconds after Penn State lost the lead, it pulled away for good.
Reitz found herself open and netted her fifth goal of the match, giving Penn State a 9-8 lead. After the goal, Penn State fans belted out cheers of "De-fense, De-fense," and the team used this energy to score another goal and extend the lead to 10-8. A West Chester goal with just 14 seconds remaining proved too little too late, and Penn State found itself victorious.
With the win, Penn State won a trip to Texas A&M and a spot to play for the national championship on May 6.
In order to win the national title the team will need to outlast the 15 remaining teams from each of the College Water Polo Association's 11 other divisions.
"We set this goal last year, and we came back this year and worked hard. We learned a few things from this past game, and we're going to look to make a good name for Penn State across the nation," Woomer said.
