SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – History was made on Friday morning as the newest program in Cal State Fullerton Athletics, the Titans women's water polo team defeated UC Merced 24-3 at the UCSB Campus Pool in their inaugural game.
Head Coach Kyle Witt picked up his first career Titan victory in the first game at the helm of the program.
"I'm so proud of everyone for the effort they displayed today," Witt said. "Getting a group of people together in six months was my challenge. Having them become a team was their challenge and they proved they are well on the way to that goal with today's game."
After assembling a team in less than six months, the Titans were able to roll off an impressive season debut on Friday morning.
Cal State Fullerton 24, UC Merced 3
Almost every Titan that played was able to add their name to the goal sheet as the Titans had an impressive 24 goal offensive onslaught in their program debut. The first captain in program history, Freshman Mia Solorzano led the Titans with seven goals. Kieran Scout Bates had four goals and two assists, Jacqueline Naito had three goals and two assists, and Gabrielle Zaretskiy had three goals and two assists. Delaney Wilder added two goals and led the team with 5 assists. Brittney Pino scored one goal and added three assists. Stephanie Hidalgo scored one goal and had one assist. Emily Midgley scored one goal and had one assist. Kylie Corwin scored one goal nad tallied three assists. Mikka Von Scherr scored one goal and two assists.
Haden Skye Bates made nine saves in the cage and picked up the first win of her career and the first win in Titans women's water polo history.
The Titans got off to a hot start as Kieran Scout Bates scored 15 seconds into the game. The Titans would lead 8-0 after the first quarter and 16-2 after two periods of play. The Titans led 21-2 after three quarters and finally finished the fourth quarter with the final score of 24-3.
Cal State Fullerton 10, Ottawa 8
The second game of the day was much closer affair with the Titans and Spirit trading blows throughout the game.
Solorzano once again led the Titans attack, finishing the game with five goals to lead the Titans to victory.
Ottawa took an early 2-0 lead to start the game before the Titans fought their way back into the game before the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter the Titans jumped to a three goal lead at 5-2 before the Spirit scored three straight to tie the game up at 5-5. The Titans got a late goal before the end of the period to take a 6-5 lead into halftime.
The Titans and Spirit went back-and-forth in the third quarter with both teams tied 8-8 after three quarters.
In the fourth quarter, Solorzano scored two early goals in the period to put the Titans up 10-8 which they would held onto for the remainder of the game. Bates made several key stops in goal for the Titans to hold onto the lead.
The Titans return to action at the UCSB Campus Pool Saturday afternoon as they take on No. 15 Wagner College and No. 21 San Diego State University. The opening sprint against Wagner College begins at 12:00 p.m.
WATCH THE TITANS ON ESPN+ Titans fans can now watch every home event exclusively on ESPN+. Cal State Fullerton has built a top-tier production studio to give the viewers an ESPN quality production for all games at Titan Stadium. Additionally, all schools in the Big West Conference are committed to producing ESPN quality streams which will allow fans to watch the Titans on ESPN+ for all road conference games.
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