Women's Water Polo Advances to Championship, Falls to OCC by One Goal

LONG BEACH, CA – The SBCC women's water polo team advanced to the final round of the SoCal Regional Championships this past weekend at Long Beach, defeating Mt. SAC 15-7 and Fullerton 11-6 before falling to Orange Coast 10-9 in the championship game.

By making it to the regional final, the Vaqueros (29-6) clinched a spot in the CCCAA State Championship playoffs for the fifth time in six years.

SBCC 15, Mt. SAC 7
Goalscorers: Straley (4), Lopez (3), Hughes (2), Mancinelli, Daland, Olson, Tuxill, Muehring, Gavia
Saves: Donleavy (5), McKay (4)

Facing Mt. SAC in the quarterfinals, freshman attacker Bella Straley continued her most productive stretch of the season, scoring the first two goals of the game on her way to a team-leading four. It was the third four-goal outing over her last four games.

Goals from Claire Daland, Emily Lopez and Natalie Mancinelli followed to give SBCC a 5-0 lead. The Mounties (17-9) would cut the lead to two goals late in the third, but the Vaqueros answered with a 6-0 run to end the game with a comfortable advantage.

Lopez finished with her third hat trick of the season. Goalkeepers Ava Donleavy (5 saves) and Chloe McKay (4) combined for nine saves.

SBCC 11, Fullerton 6
Goalscorers: Olson (4), Daland (3), Straley (2), Muehring, Tal
Saves: Donleavy (10)

The Vaqueros faced Fullerton (29-5) for the fourth time this season in the semis, looking to overcome a Hornet side that had given SBCC three of its five losses entering the game.

Santa Barbara came ready to play, shutting Fullerton out for the entire first half while getting four goals from Jenna Olson to take a 6-0 lead into the break. The Vaquero defense stayed strong throughout, led by Donleavy's 10 saves, as they held the Hornets to their second-lowest goal total of the year.

A 3-0 run midway through the second half capped by back-to-back goals by Daland put SBCC up 10-4 to seal the win.

Orange Coast 10, SBCC 9
Goalscorers: Tal (3), Olson (2), Muehring (2), Lopez (2)
Saves: McKay (3), Donleavy (4)

In the regional championship, the Vaqueros once again started out very strong, shutting OCC (27-4) for nearly 10 minutes to start the game. Olson scored twice to put SBCC up 4-0.

However, the Pirates returned the favor in the second quarter, evening things at 4-4 by halftime. A back-and-forth third quarter saw the Vaqueros answer a 3-1 Pirate run with a 3-1 spurt of their own, making it a 7-7 tie after three.

Gabrielle Muehring scored on the first possession of the fourth quarter to put SBCC ahead 8-7. OCC answered with three straight goals. Emily Lopez scored the final goal of the day with 3:35 left on the clock, but the Vaqueros were unable to find an equalizer the rest of the way.

NEXT UP
The Vaqueros will now take a No. 2 seed into the CCCAA State Semifinals against West Valley next Friday, Nov. 18 at Southwestern College.