The Oregon women’s water polo team took second place in the country this season after an impressive run through the National Collegiate Club Water Polo Championships, where they fell 7-6 in an overtime thriller in the championship game against the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Mustangs.
The Ducks, who hosted the tournament at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, went into the tournament as the Northwest Division Champions and ranked seventh in the nation.
The Ducks drew Lindenwood University in the opening round and cruised to a 17-1 victory behind solid play on both ends of the pool. Freshman Beth Gordon had a game-high four goals, including three in the opening two minutes of the game. The sister duo of senior Karen Peront and freshman Katie Peront added three tallies apiece to help the Ducks take an 11-1 lead into halftime. From there, the Duck defense dominated the second half and was backed by the stellar goalkeeping of sophomore Jessica Kragt, who recorded five saves on just seven Lindenwood shots. In total, nine players scored for the Ducks, which helped secure a spot in the second round against the 10th-ranked University of Pennsylvania.
In the second round the Ducks got much more of a competitive opponent in the Penn Quakers. Sophomore Lizzy Flower and Karen Peront each recorded hat tricks to help take the Ducks to a 9-8 victory. The Ducks, who were able to start quickly the previous day, had a little harder time scoring in the opening half. Oregon trailed 7-3 with 6:35 to go in the third, but in the closing minutes of the quarter they scored four times to even the score at seven. With just 10 seconds left in the third, Penn senior Soleil Roberts drew a penalty on a breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot that she cashed in, giving the Quakers an 8-7 lead going into the fourth.
The fourth was mostly devoid of scoring until Gordon scored the equalizer with 3:42 remaining. Kragt, who stopped seven shots, was huge down the stretch, as Penn and Oregon traded scoring chances the rest of the way until Karen Peront found the back of the cage with just 25 seconds left in regulation to give the Ducks the eventual game-winning goal. Peront was named player of the game in each of the first two rounds.
The win against Penn set up a showdown in the semifinal later that night with the nation’s top-ranked UC Davis Aggies. The Ducks were much sharper in the evening game as they never trailed on their way to a 9-5 victory. Senior Courtney Ashford and Gordon each had hat tricks, while Flower and Katie Peront added the other three goals for the Ducks. The Ducks took a 6-3 lead into halftime before UC Davis closed it down to 6-4, but the Oregon women slammed the door on any chance for a comeback by outscoring the Aggies 3-1 in the fourth quarter. Oregon was on the attack all night, firing 24 shots at the Aggie cage. The win was an historic one because it set up-for just the second time in the nine-year history of the tournament-a championship game that would feature the host school.
In the final, the Ducks drew another tough competitor in the second-ranked Cal Poly; the Mustangs’ appearance in the final was the sixth for its program in nine years. Six different players scored for Oregon but the story was the goaltending battle between Kragt and Cal Poly netminder Jenny Austin. Kragt stopped 13 of 26 Mustang shots, which was good enough to force the game into overtime, as Cal Poly was unable to puncture the Oregon cage down the stretch. There was no scoring in the extra frame until the final minute of the overtime period, when Cal Poly freshman Sarah Ur drove a shot past Kragt with just twelve seconds left, clinching a 7-6 win and the championship for the Mustangs.
In addition to the second place finish, the Ducks took home several individual honors. Ashford and Kragt were named to the All-Tournament Team, while Gordon and Karen Peront were named to the second team.