SCC Battle Falls Just Short For Women's Water Polo

Two teams desperate for their first win of the season got together on Wednesday at the Pasadena Polytechnic School pool. The Pasadena City College women's water polo team led twice and traded 11 ties, but visiting Rio Hondo held on for a 15-14, South Coast Conference victory.

The Lancers (0-10, 0-6 in SCC play) nearly tied it with 23 seconds left but Emily Padilla's long-range shot hit the cage cross bar for PCC's final scoring opportunity. 

PCC played a physical match that included 10 ejections in the final quarter alone, two as double exclusions. 

Rio Hondo (1-5 overall and SCC) broke a 13-13 tie with 5:46 left on a goal by Emily Narvaez. Daisy Reynoso's fourth goal with 1:04 left cut the score to one, but that was the end of PCC's scoring. 

The Lancers led 5-4 after one quarter when Marissa Granados fired in a shot from nearly mid-pool with four seconds left in the period. 

Trailing 8-6 in the third period, PCC netted three straight goals to take the lead capped on score by Granados with four minutes to go in the quarter. Ivy Samuel gave PCC its final lead at 9-8 with a goal with 2:45 left in the third. 

Samuel, who scored three goals and made a game-high five steals plus two field blocks, was unable to play in the final quarter due to an injury.

Overall, Granados and Reynoso scored four goals each while Padilla netted three goals and stole the ball four times. 

Rio Hondo's top scorer was Katherine Galindo, who scored all six of her goals in the second half and added four assists. Roadrunners goalie Aundrea Garcia made eight saves while PCC was unlucky in hitting the bar five times.

Lancers goalie Rae Jaio played perhaps her best match of the season with six saves.

"I'm super proud of our effort today," said PCC head coach Terry Stoddard. "There were points in the match where we battled back and you can see that the players wanted to win badly in that fourth quarter. We may get a chance to face Rio Hondo again in the SCC Tournament, so that's a potential chance for us to beat them. It was a great water polo game because both teams worked hard. Rio Hondo just did a little more at the end."

The 14 goals for PCC was the most by a Lancers team in three years.

On Wednesday, Oct. 30, the Lancers host Chaffey in the final dual SCC game, a 3 p.m. start at Pasadena Poly.