Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 LEBANON, Ill. -- The Augustana Vikings women's water polo team comes out of day one of the Lischwe Memorial Invitational undefeated. The Vikings earned a big win over the Carthage Firebirds by a score of 19-15 before a sudden victory after four overtime periods against the UC Merced Bobcats, 12-11.

In the first game against Carthage, the Firebirds scored first, but Augie followed with three straight goals to lead 3-1 after the opening eight minutes. Emma Blezien put up two shots for Augie, while Waiahuli Akau notched down a shot with 30 seconds remaining in the opening period. In the second, Braelyn Hill and Jorja Neumann put up goals and left Carthage scoreless to secure the 5-1 advantage entering halftime. 

In a high-scoring second half, the Firebirds tallied the first successful shot before the Vikings put up four more. Three shots came from Cindy King, along with one from Becca Foster, to make a 9-2 score. Carthage found the back of the net once more in the third period, but Foster created another scoring run for the Vikings. Foster and Abigail Gatlin added goals in the final two minutes of action of the third to make an 11-3 game. In the final eight minutes of play, Jersey Merrick and Hill tallied shots to the score sheet to pull the advantage to 13-3. The Firebirds added another before Augie put up four consecutive shots to move the game to 17-4 in the final two minutes of play. Both teams rallied successful shots with Waiahuli securing the final goal of the game to lead 19-5 in the first game of the season. 

Foster led the team with four goals, while Waiahuli and King followed with three apiece. Merrick tallied four assists, while Hill and Susan Palmentera-Reid grabbed two steals apiece. In the net, Palmentera-Reid had nine saves in her 24 minutes of action, while Eleni Nicoloudes earned a save in her eight minutes of play.

In the second game, Augie opened the first period outscoring the Bobcats 3-2 with Anita Rodgers tallying the first one of the match. Other shots came from Waiahuli and Merrick. UC Merced put a shot in the back of the net in the first, but the Vikings held a 3-2 advantage. In the second period, the Bobcats tallied two more shots to overtake the game 4-3. Xiomara Trejo collected her first goal of the day to even the score at four apiece with 5:52 left in the first half. Both teams put up three goals in the final five minutes of action to draw the score even at 7-7 entering the halftime break. 

Returning to action, Hill tallied the first goal of the third period to regain the upper hand, but the Bobcats followed with one of their own. The teams traded successful shots before Foster put a shot in the back of the cage to lead 10-9 heading into the fourth period. UC Merced put up the only goal in the fourth to force extra periods with a score of 10-10. 

In the first period of regular regulation overtime, the Vikings found a goal with 1:01 on the clock from Hill. The Bobcats followed with one of their own to push the game to sudden-death overtime. In the first sudden death overtime, both teams remained scoreless to move to the fourth overtime period. After a minute of action with both teams trading shots, Anais Jones found the back of the neck off a pass by Rodgers to seal the 12-11 victory.

Hill led the team in game two with three goals, while Jones and Waiahuli followed with two apiece. Hailey Sherman collected three assists, while Jones tallied four steals. Palmentera-Reid notched 16 saves in her 44 minutes in goal.

With the two wins, Augie opens the season with a perfect record. The team will be back in action for the final day of the Lischwe Memorial Invitational with a game against McKendree.