LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The McKendree women's water polo team began its five-game trip to the Golden State here Thursday evening by posting an 11-9 victory over Occidental College at the De Mandel Aquatics Center on the Occidental campus.
 
With the win, McKendree improves to 6-1 on the season, while Occidental falls to 4-4 on the year. The Bearcats have now won three straight games since suffering its lone loss of the season (11-10) to Villanova at the Curtis Robinette Invitational.
 
Against the Tigers, the Bearcats put up three or more goals in three of the four periods and used a six goal first half to hold off a second-half rally by the Tigers as they outscored the Bearcats, 6-5 after halftime. McKendree outscored Occidental, 6-3 in the first half.
 
The Bearcats got goals from five different players in the game, including senior center Abigail Burton (Chino, Calif./Chino) led the way with four goals, while junior utility player Shoshana Scanlon (Orlando, Fla./Olympia), junior center/utility player Katelyn Rodrigue (Brentwood, Calif./Hertiage) and senior center defender Danielle Borelli (Laguna Beach, Calif./Laguna Beach) each tallied two goals. The other goal was scored by senior attacker Maddy Bolton (Alta Loma, Calif./Los Osos).
 
Occidental jumped in front 2-0 in the opening two-plus minutes of the game thanks to goals by Jillian Miller and Kayla Lin, but the Bearcats would rally as they scored the next five goals, including closing the first period with three goals to lead 3-2 at the opening eight minutes. Burton scored two of those three goals.
 
Rodrigue, Borelli and Scanlon would score goals in the second period to give McKendree a 6-3 halftime lead.
 
The Tigers would open the third period by scoring three straight goals to tie the game 6-all with 2:34 left in the period. Scanlon, though, would break the tie with her second goal of the game with 1:09 left to give the Bearcats a 7-6 lead.
 
Occidental would answer back by scoring two of the first three goals of the fourth period to tie the game at 8-all with 3:38 remaining in the game.
 
Borelli, Burton and Bolton would break the tie by scoring three goals in a span of nearly two minutes to push in front 11-8 with 1:38 remaining in the contest.
 
Marisa Lipari would cap the scoring with her lone goal of the game with 1:20 remaining in the game.
 
Lin paced the Tigers with three goals and two assists for five points, while Olivia Montgomery added two goals and an assist.
 
Freshman goalie Sydney Kane (Bradley, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) played all 32 minutes in goal and allowed nine goals and made 12 saves and had a steal.
 
Alexandria Moore played all 32 minutes in goal and allowed 11 goals and made six saves and had two steals.
 
Occidental would outshoot the Bearcats, 27-21 as Burton led the way with seven shots and Scanlon took four shots.
 
The Bearcats will continue its California trip by playing two games on Friday, March 4 at the Claremont Convergence Tournament as they open the day at 12 p.m. CT against Biola at 12 p.m. and Cal State-Northridge at 6:15 p.m. The Biola game is scheduled to be played at Claremont, Calif., while the CSUN game will be played in La Verne, Calif.