FRESNO, Calif. – Fresno Pacific (11-20) rolled through their competitors this weekend at their home tournament. Yulia Blinovskya scored three goals in each of the Sunbirds’ wins while the Sunbirds beat their opponents an average of just over seven goals a game. The Sunbirds defeated Sonoma State, 15-10; Cal State Maritime, 15-4; and Fresno State, 9-2.
Blinovskya led the Sunbirds with nine goals, followed closely by Brittany Guerrero with eight goals scoring three goals in each of the Sunbirds’ victories over Sonoma and Maritime. Deborah Wall also had a hat-trick against Sonoma, and finished the day with four goals.
Jenny Diebert also had four goals for the tournament, scoring her tournament-high against Maritime with two goals.
Crystal Cole kept the Sunbirds’ opponent away from the goal most of the tournament capturing 25 saves on the day with 11 saves coming against Maritime. Cole only allowed six goals by her in the entire tournament.
Katie Michael got valuable playing time for the Sunbirds playing in all three games. Michael had a great game against Fresno State grabbing six saves in the fourth quarter only.
Coach Brian Suhovy commented, “It was a great day of water polo for us sweeping the weekend at home 3-0. With those three wins we just bested our record last year showing a great deal of improvement.” The Sunbirds won nine games in 2008, and have now won their eleventh game with several more to come.
Coach Suhovy continued, “I was extremely happy with how the team played and this should set us up for success at our NAIA National Invitational.”
The NAIA National Invitational will be held on Friday and Saturday, April 17-18, but before then the Sunbirds will take on Fresno State one more time at home. The Fresno State game will be on Wednesday, April 15 leading up to the national tournament. The first sprint will be at 7:00 p.m. at Sunnyside High School.