LOS ANGELES — Waiting nearly a month and a half for league play to begin can make any team anxious, especially when that game is the conference home opener against a nationally ranked rival. That's why the No. 5 Occidental College women's water polo team struck first and didn't look back against No. 3 Cal Lutheran on Wednesday at Taylor Pool, picking up a 15-12 victory.

Oxy, who began its season back on Feb. 9, entered the day having already played 20 games against a variety of challenging opponents. But, having his team capture its first conference win was imperative for Occidental head coach Larry Zubrin, as five of the nation's top teams this season are in the SCIAC.

"This win was incredibly important," he said. "We've been through a very difficult and challenging season. We knew this was going to be a tough team to beat and we stepped up, played to our potential, got some enthusiasm going and it was a really good team win for us."

Just 47 seconds into the contest, Oxy center Nanea Fujiyama (Honolulu) opened up the scoring with one of her three goals in the first quarter, the second of which was a hard backhander to the right hand of Cal Lutheran goaltender Kylee Tomasetti less than two minutes after the first. Fujiyama recorded a total of five goals on the evening to go along with four steals.

"I think the standings will definitely be shifting more than once this season," Fujiyama said. "The top five teams in the SCIAC are ridiculously close this year, and it really is anybody's game. And I think today we proved that we deserve to be one of those contenders." 

In addition to Fujiyama, two other Tigers saw double figure goals. Lindsay Albino (Greenwich, Conn.) recorded a hat trick with one goal in each of the final three quarters and Kelsey Shyba (Los Gatos) added two. Five other Occidental players each recorded one goal apiece. 

"We definitely have to credit our entire team playing together," Fujiyama said. "It was one of the first times this season that we played so cohesively on both offense and defense. I especially have to give credit to our goalie, Rachel Adeleye (Elizabeth, N.J.). She stepped up amazingly, adjusting to what they were doing."

Adeleye provided the main defensive push, totaling 13 saves in the game and coming up with a number of hard-fought stops down the stretch.

"I knew that I had to my part today and carry my team, especially being our big home opener and coming off a good weekend" she said. "We had to get a big win at home, so I kind of just stepped up my game today."

Though the Tigers carried a 9-6 advantage into halftime and were up by as much as six, leading 14-8 with 6:42 minutes remaining in the final period, Cal Lu staged a late-game comeback, scoring four goals in as many minutes to pull within two. Shannon Streeter led the charge, scoring both of her goals with less than six and half minutes left on the clock. Two other Regals had multi-goal performances, as Jordan Card netted four and Jane Galluzzi had two of her own.

However, Oxy played lockdown defense in the waning moments and Morgan McClafferty added a goal with 2:23 minutes left to give the Tigers some breathing room at what would go on to be the final score of 15-12.

"Confidence is the big thing that we take out of this game," Zubrin said. "A win like this builds our confidence because we know how good that team is and it's great to see the girls step up and put shots away and not be afraid or tentative. It's something we've been working on throughout the year. We've just got to carry this momentum into the next game and go one game at a time."

The Tigers (7-14, 1-0 SCIAC) travel to Redlands on March 27 at 5 p.m. before returning to Taylor Pool to host Pomona-Pitzer March 30 at 11 a.m.