The Gannon University women’s water polo team split a pair of matches Saturday at the Carneval Athletic Pavilion pool, beating McKendree, 15-5, before losing to rival Mercyhurst, 4-3.
The split came one week after the Knights traveled to Lebanon, Ill., where they took two out of three games in the McKendree Invitational.
Gannon opened its invitational run with a 12-6 win over Monmouth College on April 7 and followed that up with a 12-9 win over host McKendree later in the day.
The following day, the Knights fell again to Mercyhurst, 7-4.
In its most recent action, Gannon jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the Lakers on goals from Francesca Williamson and Alison Cooney.
But Mercyhurst pulled even with a pair of third-period goals and then moved ahead with less than six minutes to play on a goal by Nicki Borella. Erin Glass’ goal gave the Lakers some insurance with 3 minutes, 37 seconds remaining, and that came in handy as Cooney scored for Gannon with 27 seconds left to cut the final deficit to 4-3.
In Saturday’s opener against McKendree, the Knights outscored the Bearcats 8-1 in the first half, with all eight goals coming in the second quarter.
Four of the eight goals came from Campbell Ruh, while two came from Williamson and two from Sydney Fountain.
The Knights kept control of the game in the second half, opening with three straight goals, a pair from Liz Barr and one from Ruh. Gannon went on to score four more goals and win the game. Ruh had four steals and Williamson had three.
Ruh finished with a game-high seven goals while Barr added three and Williamson and Fountain each finished with two.
Goalie Isabelle Vieira finished with 14 saves.
On the trip to Illinois, Gannon opened play in the McKendree Invitational by doubling the score on Monmouth. The Knights rallied in the second half after trailing 5-4 at halftime, scoring eight of the nine goals in the final two quarters for the win.
Cooney led the way with four goals while Williamson finished with three and Ruh and Barr each added two. Amanda Puthoff also contributed a goal.
Ruh also contributed four assists and Vieira had 12 saves.
In the win over McKendree, Gannon started with a 5-2 lead and widened it to 7-3 at halftime. The Bearcats pulled to within 7-5, but the Knights responded with a three-goal burst and held on for the win.
Cooney led the attack with six goals, Ruh finished with three goals and two assists and Barr chipped in with three assists, three steals and a goal.
In the April 8 loss to Mercyhurst, Gannon trailed 6-2 at halftime after being blanked 3-0 in the second quarter and never got closer than three goals in the second half.
Ruh scored two goals for Gannon and Cooney and Williamson each added one.
The Knights will return to action the weekend of April 27-29 in the Western Water Polo Association Championship, hosted by the University of California, San Diego. Dates and times are to be determined.

NICHOLAS SORENSEN
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