EDITOR'S NOTE: McKendree's game against Cal State Northridge will no longer have live stats, however, a box score will be provided after the game later in the day.

LEBANON, Ill. – The women's water polo team will trek to the Golden State of California for a plethora of quality games with conference weekends soon approaching, as the program will take part in both the CSUN Mini Invite and the prestigious Convergence Tournament over the course of the next three days. 

In the CSUN Mini Invite on Thursday, March 5th, the Bearcats will face the Wildcats of RV Villanova University at 4:30 PM CT and will follow up with the host No.23 California State University, Northridge later in the evening at 8:30 PM CT. 

Friday, March 6th will be day one for McKendree at the Convergence Tournament, where they will take on Azusa Pacific University at 1:30 PM CT and the University of Redlands at 6:30 PM CT. The team will wrap up their trip on Saturday, March 7th for day two of the Convergence by pairing up with Concordia University Irvine in a non-conference matchup and will conclude with No.25 / DIII No.1 Pomona-Pitzer Colleges at 6:00 PM CT. 

All six contests will provide live stats via The FOSH. Only the match against Pomona-Pitzer will be streamed live and on demand, which will be on FloSports, with a subscription purchase required. 

SCOUTING THE LAST OUTINGS 

The team fought their way back into the win column last weekend after vanquishing the Vikings of DIII No.5 Augustana College in an overtime thriller at the Anne Greve Lund Natatorium on Saturday, February 28th in Rock Island, Illinois.  

After Augustana struck first with a five-meter penalty shot one minute into the match, McKendree responded with force and netted in three straight, with two of such coming by way of senior attacker Dylan Murphy (Carlsbad, Calif.). The Vikings took back momentum with a power play goal to end the first quarter as they flip the script in the second quarter by scoring three more while junior attacker Shanelle Márquez (Madrid, Spain) tacked on her second goal of the game already, while senior Jazmine Sandoval (Westminster, Calif.) dropped in her ninth of the season. After the game got knotted up with a 5-5 score at halftime, the same story from the opening moments of action presented itself with the Vikings striking first just 17 ticks into the second half, but the Bearcats would notch three goals unanswered to take a two-point lead. A 4-1 run by Augustana bled its way into the final minutes of regulation in the fourth period with a 10-9 edge. With 1:23 left on the game clock, Murphy became the hero in hostile waters by taking advantage on a man-up opportunity to tie the contest and force overtime in Rock Island. Augustana began the first of two extra periods with a goal, but it would be the last they would get for the rest of the day, as Márquez and Murphy, along with leading scorer Bella Morquecho (Chicago, Ill.) boosted the squad to four unanswered scores to bring home the 14-11 overtime victory back to O'Fallon.  

TUSEN TAKK 

In the win in Rock Island, Márquez led with five goals on 55.6% shooting to go with two steals and a pair of field blocks Rebelo had six total points that consisted of two goals scored and four assists, with also two takeaways. Morquecho also got on the board with a hat-trick of three goals, plus two drawn exclusions. Murphy had a pair of goals to sail in, to go along with a steal. Munoz, Brown, Mattocks, and Monroe each contributed one goal in the win. Freshman goalkeeper Delaney Judkins (La Grange, Ill.) played all 38:00 minutes in the net and came away with 11 saves and a pair of takeaways. 

YOU GET A NOD! YOU GET A NOD! WE ALL GET A NOD! 

Márquez's performance over the one-match weekend earned her with this week's WWPA Offensive Player of the Week award announced on Wednesday, being the first athletic honor of her collegiate career. The junior is currently 10th in the entire conference in goals per game, netting a 1.8 average. 

It is already the second weekly conference recognition for the Bearcats this season, as Morquecho also got the offensive nod after McKendree's first week after The Malmsten Invitational. 

The program now has 19 selections for the WWPA Player of the Week in its history, with the honors now split between seven different Bearcats. 

TEAM TOPPERS 

• SHOTS – Bella Morquecho (51) 
• GOALS – Bella Morquecho (26) 
• ASSISTS – Joey Rebelo (13) 
• POINTS – Bella Morquecho (28) 
• SHOOTING % – Bella Morquecho (51.0%) 
• DRAWN EXCLUSIONS – Bella Morquecho (35) 
• STEALS – Joey Rebelo (15) 
• FIELD BLOCKS – Tie; Jazmine Sandoval, Dylan Murphy (3) 
• SPRINTS WON – Tie; Jazmine Sandoval, Dylan Murphy (3) 
• SPRINT % – Jazmine Sandoval (37.5%) 
• SAVES – Delaney Judkins (56) 
• SAVE % – Delaney Judkins (34.4%) 

LOOKING AHEAD 

After the eventful week in sunny California, the team will immediately head East to Erie, Pennsylvania to begin conference play at the WWPA Erie Classic on the campus of Gannon University on March 14th and 15th. 

There, the Bearcats will face Salem University at 8:00 AM CT and will follow with Penn State Behrend at 1:00 PM CT on Saturday. Then, they will conclude with the host Gannon early at 7:00 AM CT ad old WWPA-foe Mercyhurst University at 10:00 AM CT. 

All games can be watched for free live and on demand on the WWPA Network, as live stats will also be provided to the public via The FOSH. 

TUNE IN-FO 

DATE	TIME (CT)	HOME (DARK) TEAM	AWAY (WHITE) TEAM	LIVE STATS	WATCH LIVE
3/5/26	4:30 PM	Villanova	McKendree	STATS	NO STREAM
3/5/26	8:30 PM	Cal State Northridge	McKendree	NO STATS	NO STREAM
3/6/26	1:30 PM	Azusa Pacific	McKendree	STATS	NO STREAM
3/6/26	6:30 PM	Redlands	McKendree	STATS	NO STREAM
3/7/26	11:45 AM	Concordia Irvine	McKendree	STATS	NO STREAM
3/7/26	6:00 PM	Pomona-Pitzer	McKendree	STATS	WATCH ($)

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