As spring sunshine spread across campus over the weekend, the women’s water polo team was making a splash, sweeping their April 11 and 12 games with a 2-0. After a long hiatus, the Bison dove in to the next segment of their season, making a strong statement with triumphs over both Gannon and Mercyhurst. Taylor Barnett ’15 had seven goals and Hannah Sunday ’16 had six on the weekend to lead to team to victory.

The April 11 game against Gannon marked the first game for the Orange and Blue since March. The non-conference game was an important win notched for the Bison, starting off the next stretch of the season with some momentum.

Barnett scored four of her seven goals to lift the team over Gannon 14-10. Sunday also had a significant impact, netting three goals of her own. Shyla Lintz ’18, Tegan Stanbach ’17, Eleanor Marrs ’16, and Julia Ulrich ’17 scored the remainder of the goals for the Bison.

“The Gannon game was great because everyone was able to contribute, even the girls who don’t normally get as much playing time. We played well and were able to execute many of the things we’d been working on in practice,” Lintz said.

On April 12 the Bison brought the energy from the previous win to Mercyhurst, where they prevailed in the conference game 11-8. Sunday and Barnett once again led the offensive charge with three goals each. The eleven goals were scored by a variety of offensive players, with the remainder of the goals coming from Stanbach, Lintz, Marrs, Kendyl Johnson ’18, and Sayeh Bozorghadad ’15. The Bison started the game strong with a score of 5-2 and, by the end of the third quarter, had doubled Mercyhurst’s score 8-4. The game ended 11-8 in favor of the Orange and Blue.

Looking ahead, the Bison will travel to Bloomington, Ind. to finish off their matches for the regular season next weekend on April 18.

“Coming off a weekend with two wins was a great motivator, and it put us in good standings for Easterns. It’ll hopefully give us some momentum as we go into these next couple weekends,” Lintz said.