The Varsity Blues women's water polo team earned a split of its two games at the Athletic Centre on Saturday of the annual U of T Fall Classic.
 
First up was a late afternoon rematch against the Chicago Wildcats, a team of experienced college graduates who had defeated the Blues 8-7 on Friday night in a highly entertaining see-saw affair.
 
The Blues grabbed a 1-0 first-quarter lead and kept the one goal advantage to lead 4-3 at the half.  The team increased its lead by one during the third quarter and entered the final quarter ahead 6-4.  
 
The teams traded goals in the final frame allowing the Blues to exact revenge with a 7-5 victory.
 
Junior assistant captain Kassie Fraser (Vancouver) paced the Blues attack with two goals, while senior co-captain Megan MacCormac (Ottawa), sophomore Caitlyn Tiedje (Okotoks, Alberta) and freshmen Deena Charles (Langley, B.C.), Katie Smith (Chestermere, Alberta) and Emma Brezoczky (Los Gatos, California) added singles.
 
With only two hours of rest and MacCormac, Charles and Smith unavailable due to injury, the Blues tried in vain to keep pace with Capital Wave "A" (Ottawa) team.
 
After opening the scoring early in the first quarter, the Blues gave up three goals in a row and trailed 3-1 after one period.  By the half way mark of the second quarter, the Blues had tied things up only to concede a late goal to trail 4-3 at the half.
 
After the teams switched ends, Capital Wave increased its lead to 6-4 by the end of the third quarter.  The teams traded a pair of goals each during  the first half of the final quarter before the visitors popped in three unanswered goals (including one at the horn) to win 11-6.
 
Junior Emily Kelvin-Davies (Maple Ridge, B.C.) and freshman Sara Sutherland (Regina) each notched a pair of goals with freshman Allie Vas (Yorba Linda, California) tallying the other marker.
 
Sophomore Amber Masse (San Jose, California) returned to her natural position in goal after being pressed into field player duty throughout last year and came up with several excellent saves during her two quarters of work in relief of junior starter Rachael Jaffe (Irvine, California) who exited after the opening frame.  Junior Maddie Hertz (Miami) made her debut as a goalie in the final quarter and made her first three saves as a Blues netminder.
 
The Blues wrap up the tournament on Sunday at 1:30 with a rematch against Capital Wave "A".

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