O'FALLON, Ill. – The Gannon women's water polo team continue their post season run as the Golden Knights went 1-1 in the opening day of the Western Water Polo Association Championships to advance to the semifinal rounds.  Gannon will now face No. 1 seeded Salem at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning.   
 
THE RUNDOWN

• Final Score:  Gannon 9, McKendree 8 | Mercyhurst 7, Gannon 6
• Records: Gannon (4-13, 2-4 WWPA) | McKendree (2-5, 2-5 WWPA) | Mercyhurst (6-6, 3-3 WWPA)
• Location: McKendree Metro Rec Plex | O'Fallon, Ill.

GAMEDAY MEDIA CENTER

• Box Scores:  Gannon-McKendree | Gannon-Mercyhurst
• WWPA Scoreboard: Click Here
• WWPA Standings: Click Here
• WWPA Tournament Central: Click Here
• Updated Season Statistics: Click Here

 
GANNON BY THE NUMBERS

• Goals: Wiemken (7), Ruh (4), Popescu (3)
• Assists: Ruh (1), Kreidinger (1), Squeglia (1)
• Steals: Squeglia (1), Westphal (1)
• Saves: Slater (18), Puthoff (1)

HOW IT HAPPENED (Game 1)

•  Gannon jumped on the board early as Nicole Wiemken (Napoleon, Ohio/Napoleon) fired a shot to the back of the net but was immediately responded with a shot by Abby Burton to level the score.  The Golden Knights tagged on two more to the board before McKendree used a 3-0 run to take the lead but with one second left Wiemken landed one more shot to level the score at four.

• Julia Kreidinger (Erie, Pa./Villia Maria) won the sprint against Alaina Johnson to gain momentum leading to a 3-2 run to put the Golden Knights back on top at halftime.
• Both teams registered two goals in the second half but the Golden Knights' defense held McKendree to the very end taking a 9-8 victory.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED (Game 2)

• In the final game of the day, Mercyhurst opened scoring at the 5:53 mark to take a 1-0 lead but the Knights countered back with a shot by Wiemken to even the score before an exclusion goal by Campbell Ruh (Walnut, Calif./Lutheran High School of Orange County) gave Gannon a 3-2 advantage.
• The Lakers used a 3-1 run in the second to take back the lead.  Unable to string together a consecutive run Gannon fell 7-6.

 
GAME NOTES

• Wiekmen led the Knights with seven goals on the day followed by Ruh with four and Beatrice Popescu (Bucharest, Romania/Railway Tech) with three.  
• The win in the WWPA Championships marks Gannon's second victory since joining the league in 2015.
• Maddie Slater (Erie, Pa./Villa Maria) registered both starts at goal recording 18 saves through 56:00 minutes while Amanda Puthoff (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mount Notre Dame) also saw action at goal allowing one goal with one save.

 
 
UP NEXT

• Gannon will face No. 1 seeded Salem at 10 a.m. ET first the first semifinal game followed by a matchup between Mercyhurst and No. 4 seeded Fresno Pacific.
• The winner from each semifinal game will play in the championship game scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.