BLOOMINGTON, IN- The women's water polo team played a tough back and forth game with Michigan but came up just short as the #19 Hawks fell to the #13 Wolverines 7-6 in the CWPA Western Championship game hosted by Indiana University on Sunday afternoon.

Kamila Zakirova (Almaty, Kazakhstan) led Hartwick with two goals. Lisa Bass (Montreal, Quebec), Jemma Dendy Young (Cape Town, South Africa), Sasha Freeborn (Auckland, New Zealand), and Lily Martinez (Commerce, CA) all added one goal each.

Haley Cox (El Segundo, CA) stopped 10 shots in goal for the Hawks.

Michigan was led by Kiki Golden who had four goals. Meaghan Cobb, Kelsey Nolan, and Audrey Pratt all had one score each.
Alex Adamson had eight saves in goal for the Wolverines.

Cobb scored from the post to put Michigan on top 1-0 with 6:20 to go in the first period. Zakirova would even the game on a 2-on-1 advantage with 5:51 left in the first. Back-to-back goals by Golden put the Wolverines ahead 3-1 with 2:02 left in the period and Michigan would hold the lead going into the second quarter of play.

Dendy Young scored for the Hawks for the second quarter's only goal with 6:45 left to make it a 3-2 contest at halftime.

In the third quarter, Bass' long-range goal knotted the game at 3-all with 6:11 left in the quarter.  After an exchange of goals, Michigan's Golden scored with 15 seconds left on the clock to put the Wolverines on top 5-4 heading into the final quarter of play.

Freeborn's man-up goal with 7:08 left to play in the game would tie the game 5-5.  Less than a minute later, Zakirova would score her second goal of the afternoon off the side bar to put Hartwick up 6-5 and give the Hawks their first lead of the game.

A skip-shot goal from Nolan tied it up with 5:35 left to go in the frame.  Freeborn's skip-shot attempt was blocked by Adamson and on a man-up opportunity, and Golden scored her fourth goal of the game past Cox to give Michigan the 7-6 edge.

Both teams would have shot attempts blocked on their ensuing possessions and Golden would come away with a steal with 2:24 left on the clock. Dendy Young would get a steal of her own to give Hartwick possession with 1:53 left to play. Allison Kosich (Stockton, CA) had a chance to tie the game but her shot went high and Michigan retained possession with 1:25 to go in the game.

A backhand shot by Nolan was stopped by Cox and the Hawks would again have another chance to tie the game but Zakirova's shot was blocked by Adamson with under 40 seconds remaining. The Wolverines would control possession but Hartwick's defense stood its ground and forced a shot clock violation with seven seconds left.  The Hawks had a chance to send the game to  overtime but could not get a shot off as time expired and the Wolverines held on for the victory.

The Hawks will play their final regular season game next Saturday against Brown in Providence, RI. Game time is set for 12 p.m. Seeding for the upcoming CWPA Eastern Championships in Providence will be announced this week.