Minutemaids Sink 'Cliffe Polo; One-Game Win Streak Halted

After a heart-stopping, double overtime victory against Wellesley, Thursday night, the Radcliffe water polo team failed to recuperate as they were submarined by a strong UMass squad 12-1 yesterday at Amherst.

A minute after the opening whistle, the Minutemaids were off to a quick lead, which they increased continually. Paced by ace swimming star Penny Noyes, the UMass team tallied three unanswered goals in the first quarter.

Psyched by a pep talk from coach Keith Raffel, the 'Cliffe waterballers set out for a rally. Freshman Jane McNamara converted a pass early in the second quarter for a score.

Tough Luck

Unfortunately for the Radcliffe team, this was the extent of its comback. The 'Cliffe net was soon assailed by a barrage of shots. While a handful of scoring opportunities arose for Radcliffe, the squad failed to clear the net and was shut out for the remainder of the contest.

When the final whistle blew, the scoreboard revealed a devastating 12-1 sinking of the Radcliffe team.

Toughie

Raffel said later that "we missed some easy shots and had some problems with our defense, but we played a tough game against a tough team."

The Radcliffe team was at a disadvantage, Raffel said, because it was unaccustomed to playing in UMass's shallow-ended pool, and thus was called for numerous fouls.

Captain Jane Hendricks said, "it was difficult for us to set up plays because we brought so many people to the game and they all weren't used to playing with each other."