LEXINGTON, Virginia - While the Salem women's water polo team is used to a road heavy schedule, they were certainly excited to be playing a little closer to home this weekend. They took the roughly 4 hour drive over to Lexington, Virginia to take on the Keydets of the Virginia Military Institute. Salem opened the season last year with a win over the Keydets for Head Coach Jeff Passwater's first win at the helm for the Tigers. This contest went much the same way with an impressive 16-11 win for the Tigers.
In the first quarter, Salem came out of the gate's with a lot of pace. They jumped out to an early 6-1 lead that featured 3 goals from Courtney Repinz. VMI battled back, but Salem added one more goal to make it 7-1 after the first.
In the second, Salem staved off a furious VMI rally early on, and responded with 3 goals of their own including a 4th goal from Repinz. At the half, Salem led 10-5.
In the third, Salem needed to push their advantage in order to make the gap insurmountable for the Keydets. They did just that by outsourcing VMI 4-2 in the period with goals from Emma Donnelly, Taeghen Hack, JoJo DeSalvo, and Mackenzie Hamilton.
In the fourth, Salem held their 14-7 advantage, and settled into a defensive focused gameplan in order to hold off any VMI comeback attempts. They even added a pair of insurance goals from Ivani Kamidoi and Emma Donnelly to seal the 16-11 win in Lexington.
From the scorer's table, Salem was led offensively by Courtney Repinz who accounted for 4 of Salem's goals on the day. Faith Stewart also added 4 points for Salem, but hers came in 2 goals and 2 assists. In goal, the duo of Emily Low and Lorelai Weaver combined for 13 saves for Salem between the pipes.
With this big win, Salem will be energized for their next round of competition next weekend. They head to Bloomington, Indiana on February 17th and 18th to compete in the Indiana Classic. In that event, they will take on Iona and California Baptist. They will also have a pair of rematches with Michigan and host Indiana in the same weekend.
