Huskies water polo wins two at Citrus Tournament

GLENDORA, CA — The East Los Angeles College water polo team split four non-conference games at the Citrus College Tournament, two yesterday and two against South Coast Conference rivals today.

The Huskies, 5-10 overall, opened play with a 13-11 loss to San Diego Miramar College (6-11) on Friday and followed with taking the nightcap 17-11 over Allan Hancock College (10-13).

Today, ELAC bested Rio Hondo College (4-14) 18-12 in a preview of Wednesday’s SCC matchup. ELAC lost the evening game 25-9 against SCC foe Chaffey College (10-7), but without standout sophomore Sophia Gonzalez (Harvard-Westlake High School) in the lineup.  

In the opening game of the season, the Huskies lost to Chaffey 19-12 with Gonzalez, but without a starting goalie. ELAC has 11 days to re-group for their regular season ending game at Chaffey.

The game could determine fourth place in the SCC standings, which would include a No. 4-seeding in the SCC Championships Nov. 2-4.

In four Citrus tourney games, Jimenez scored a team-high 19 tournament goals and added a team-high 13 assists. Gonzalez had team-high 17 steals in just three games. Freshman goalkeeper Alejandra Gazpar (Maywood HS) had 11 tournament saves.

In opening loss to Miramar, two freshmen scored five goals each for the Huskies—Amy Cervantes (Montebello HS) and Allyson Jimenez (Montebello HS). Freshman goalkeeper Brenda Nava had two saves.

In the win against Hancock, the Huskies bounced back from a 2-1 deficit and led 10-4 after two quarters, which included five goals from Jimenez and two from Cervantes, enroute to the nine point win.

Gonzalez pumped in three goals from power plays in the third period and sophomore Jessenia Barberena (Mark Keppel HS) added ELAC’s final two goals in the fourth quarter.

Follow ELAC Athletics at http://athletics.elac.edu/landing/index and ELAC Huskies Athletics on Facebook.

story submitted by Tadzio Garcia