SANTA BARBARA, California – The Marist water polo team opened the 2017 season with a thrilling double overtime upset win over the #25 Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners by a score of 11-10 on Saturday afternoon. Earlier in the day, the Red Foxes fell to the #T-5 University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in the opening day of the UC Santa Barbara Winter Invitational.

With the results, Marist stands at 1-1 on the young season.

“Today was a great start to the season.  We had a balanced offensive attack and controlled the tempo of our opposition with solid defense and communication. But most importantly we all had fun doing it.  The win against Bakersfield was a good show of character. We never gave up. We never stopped fighting and we earned every inch of water in front of us. We talk a lot about effort and this win was all effort. We climbed out of the hole we created early on and set the tone for the rest of the game which is why we got the win.”

Senior Nastassia McGlothlin led the Red Foxes with four goals and one assist on the day while junior co-captain Diana Carballo notched one goal and four assists. Freshman Carolyn Gauvin scored her first two career goals and first two career assists, sophomore Grace Doerfler and senior co-captain Amanda Amorosa chipped in four goals, senior co-captain Jocelyn McQuade scored one goal and two assists and sophomore Ariana Singer had three assists. Freshman Anais Mathes scored her first career goal in game 1 and first career assist in game 2, sophomore Katherine Tijerina had one goal in game one and one assist in game 2 and Lexi Puhl scored her first career goal in game 1.

VS. Hawaii:

In their first game of 2017, the Red Foxes fell behind early to the Rainbow Warriors as Hawaii jumped out to the early 5-1 lead in the opening quarter. Marist got their first goal of the season on the man advantage when McGlothlin found the back of the net of an assist from Singer.

The second quarter proved to be a little more evenly matched as the Red Foxes found the back of the net twice to the Rainbow Warriors three goals and as the two teams headed into halftime it was 8-3 Hawaii. Amorosa notched both goals for Marist with one coming on the man advantage. McQuade and Gauvin picked up the assists.

Down by five goals with just 16 minutes left to play, the Red Foxes began to find some momentum and found the back of the net five times with goals by Gauvin, Tijerina, Mathes and McQuade in even strength play and Doerfler on the man advantage. However, three goals by the Rainbow Warriors made it 11-8 Hawaii with one quarter remaining.

With only eight minutes left to play, the Red Foxes looked to find the equalizing goals and found the back of the net off scores by Puhl and Castro but it wasn't enough as the Rainbow Warriors scored twice themselves and the final horn sounded with Hawaii emerging victorious 13-10.

VS. Cal State Bakersfield:

Looking to pick up the first win of the season and building off the momentum of the first match, Marist came out for its second match of the day vs. the Roadrunners fired up. However, the opening quarter belonged to Cal State Bakersfield as they found the back of the net five times. The Red Foxes scored three goals, two from McGlothlin and one from Doerfler and after the opening eight minutes it was 5-3 Roadrunners.

Down by two goals, Marist notched three more in the second quarter from Castro, Carballo and McGlothlin but Cal State Bakersfield equaled with three goals of their own and after the first 16 minutes it was 8-6 Roadrunners.

Building off the momentum of the opening two quarters, Cal State Bakersfield extended its lead in the third quarter with two goals. The Red Foxes got back one off a goal by Gauvin but with eight minutes left in the game, Marist was down 10-7.

The fourth period proved to be all Red Foxes as Horvatich shut the door on the Roadrunners, not allowing a goal in the final eight minutes. Down by three, Marist got the offense they needed when Doerfler and Amorosa (2) found the back of the net and the final buzzer sounded with both teams even at 10-10.

Defense was the name of the opening overtime period as neither team was able to find the back of the net with Horvatich standing tall in net in just her second collegiate game. The second overtime looked like it too would end scoreless but with just over a minute remaining Doerfler found the back of the net to win the game for the Red Foxes 11-10 in thrilling fashion.