The Warriors made clutch defensive plays in key moments, but it was not enough to take home the Citrus Tournament championship as the women’s water polo team split four games to take home sixth place over the weekend.
The Warriors started the tournament playing well beating Santa Monica College 12-4, but stumbled in games two and three, losing to host Citrus College 13-7 and San Diego Mesa College 9-2 before a battle with Pasadena College, earning a 8-7 victory in the fourth game.
“Our team played well all weekend and our defense really stepped up, but we just couldn’t get over the hump in a few of our games,” coach Corey Stanbury said.
EC began the tournament against Santa Monica and handed them a 12-4 defeat.
This game was a rematch from a meeting between the two teams earlier in the season from the Ventura Tournament where the Warriors were victorious 11-4.
“Our defense played very well and (Santa Monica) could not get anything going offensively against us,” Stanbury said.
The Warrior offense was led by Haley Canning with five goals, while Erica Shaw and Katelynn Sloss each added three goals of their own.
During the second game against Citrus, the Warriors played an even match through the first quarter tied 3-3, but faltered in the second quarter, falling behind 7-5 going into halftime.
Citrus pulled away after halftime, shutting out the Warrior offense in the third quarter and eventually went on to a 13-7 victory.
“We became very frustrated during the game because it was so close, but (Citrus) just wore us down with their counter-attack and movement offensively,” Stanbury said.
Shaw scored two goals for the Warriors and the Sloss sisters, Katelynn and Amanda, combined for three scores in the game.
The third game of the tournament was against San Diego Mesa, and EC had trouble scoring as they were shut out through the first three quarters before losing 9-2 to a very good Olympian squad.
This is the second time the Warriors have played San Diego Mesa this season.
“We had a much better result than the last time we played them and we didn’t give up another fifteen goals,” Stanbury said.
Shaw was the Warriors lone scorer with two goals, and Erin Holder came up with five saves defensively against San Diego Mesa, totalling 21 saves during the Citrus tournament.
“Since I took over at goalie (for Jordyn Greene), I have been getting more used to the way my defense plays in front of me with each passing game,” Holder said.
Game four of the tournament against Pasadena was a nail biter, with EC edging out an 8-7 victory.
It was a close game through the first three quarters with the Warriors hanging on to a one-goal lead going into the fourth quarter.
That is when things got interesting.
Both sides traded scores during the last quarter of the game and it came down to a last minute effort on defense for EC to take the victory.
There was thirty seconds left on the clock when Pasadena took a last second shot to tie the game, but Olson made an amazing save to clinch the victory for the Warriors.
“The defense played well and made sure that Pasadena didn’t get a good look on that last shot,” Stanbury said.
EC also played last Wednesday at home against Chaffey College, but the Warriors lost a hard fought game 10-6 against the ninth ranked team in the state.
“It was so close at halftime, I thought we were going to win that game,” EC student John Stewart said.
The defense played well against a very good Chaffey offense going into halftime tied at four goals each, but could not keep up in the last half of the gameas the Warriors lost by four goals.
“(Chaffey) got a few extra goals at the end of the game, but it was a much closer game than the stat sheets would lead on,” Stanbury said.
