BOX SCORE (PDF)

GENEVA, Ohio -- Carleigh Robinson and Nicole Groat each recorded hat tricks to lead the Sonoma State women's water polo team to a convincing 12-6 victory over Gannon in the opening round Friday of the WWPA Women's Championship at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. 

The win by the No. 3 seed Seawolves (10-18) sets up a rematch with No. 2 seed Cal State East Bay in the semifinal round of the WWPA Tournament for the third straight year; Sonoma and CSUEB will go to battle Saturday at 12:30 pm PDT (3:30 pm EDT) for the right to advance to the WWPA championship game on Sunday against Saturday's other semifinal winner between top-seed UC San Diego and No. 4 seed Cal State Monterey Bay.

Click HERE to visit the official WWPA Women's Championship web page which includes links to live stats and video for every game of the tournament this weekend.

The Seawolves got off to a quick start Friday against Gannon, scoring three unanswered goals from the hands of Cassidy Mundt, Groat and Keira Dailey to open the game before giving one up at the end of the first period.  The Lady Knights snuck another one past SSU starting goalie Lisa Rodarmel with 3:20 left in the second quarter, but Sonoma went on a 7-2 run, including five goals in the third period to take a 10-4 lead into the final eight minutes.  Gannon scored two more goals at the start of the fourth, but Nicole Cunningham and Groat put the game away with two more goals, accounting for the 12-6 final score in favor of the Seawolves.

Seven different Sonoma State players caged at least one goal, led by the aforementioned three apiece from Robinson and Groat.  Dailey, Lyndsie Williams, Mundt, Cunningham, Taylor Brown and Sydney Castaneda all had one score.  Rodarmel made four saves and two steals in the first half of Friday's victory before Taylor Plorin took over in the second half to make six saves in the cage.

The Lady Knights were led on offense by Liz Barr and Alison Cooney, both of which scored twice.