CLAREMONT, Calif. - The No. 19 UC San Diego women's water polo team opened play at the Claremont Convergence tournament Friday with a pair of convincing victories, defeating Whittier, 17-3, and Cal Lutheran, 14-5.

The Tritons now hold a even 8-8 overall record.

Game One
With a balanced offensive attack, the Tritons struck early and often with five goals in the opening two quarters of play. The control didn't hold true solely on the offensive front, but defensively as well as UCSD held the Poets scoreless in the second and fourth quarters.

Sarah Lizotte and Leah Gonzales led the Tritons with three goals apiece while nine others scored at least once.

Time in the cage was evenly split between freshman classmates Courtney Miller and Alexsee Wilcox. Miller played the first half, finishing with five saves and two steals, while Wilcox also had five saves and one steal.

UCSD was 2-for-4 on man up situations and eight of the team's goals came from counter-attack opportunities without a set front court.

UCSD 5 - 5 - 4 - 3 = 17
WHITTIER 1 - 0 - 2 - 0 = 3

UCSD Goals: Sarah Lizotte 3, Leah Gonzales 3, Jolene Guiliana 2, Karen Henry 2, Andie Nishimi, Alexis Wieseler, Allison Delgado, Julia Kirkland, Emma Sasson, Lauren Finwall, Laurel Kistler

UCSD Saves: Alexsee Wilcox 5, Courtney Miller 5

Game Two
The Tritons continued their strong offensive presence later in the afternoon, outscoring the Regals by one or more in all four quarters. 

With continued success on six-on five, UCSD made all three of its opportunities, while Cal Lutheran went one-for-seven.

Alexis Wieseler, the WWPA Player of the Week, scored a team-high five goals and had four steals on defense. Lizotte found the net three times, while Julia Kirkland and Lauren Finwall each scored twice. Gonzales and Jolene Guiliana rounded out the scoring for the Tritons.

Miller finished with six stops in net.

UCSD  3 - 4 - 3 - 4 = 14

CLU    2 - 1 - 1 - 1 = 5

UCSD Goals: Alexis Wieseler 5, Sarah Lizotte 3, Julia Kirkland 2, Lauren Finwall 2, Leah Gonzales, Jolene Guiliana.

UCSD Saves: Courtney Miller 6

UCSD concludes play at the Claremont Convergence on Saturday, March 9, taking on Chapman at 9 a.m. and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at 2:20 p.m.

-- UCSDtritons.com --