With their 12-5 South Coast Conference win over visiting Mt. San Antonio College on Wednesday, the Cerritos College women's water polo team has pulled into a tie for second place with the Mounties. The second place finish in the conference standings assures the Falcons (13-3, 5-1) will be seeded #2 for the conference tournament, which is scheduled to begin November 4. The team still has to take on Pasadena City College (3-10, 3-3) in their final conference match, but will host both Riverside City and Southwestern College this Friday on the first day of the Battle at the Beach Tournament. Cerritos is serving as one of the hosts of the tournament.

In their win over the Mounties (10-13, 5-1), the Falcons scored the first two and last two goals of the first period to take a 4-2 advantage. Their defense stepped up even more and limited Mt. SAC to just single goals over the next three periods, while Cerritos put the game out of reach with a five-goal third period.

Leading 6-3 at intermission, the teams traded goals to start the third period, until the Falcons scored four times, including three in the final 1:22. Freshman Samantha Wisher (La Serna HS) gave the team a 9-4 lead, followed by a pair of goals from sophomore All-American Mia Carbajal (Schurr HS) in the final minute of the period.

Freshman Isabella Berdote (Cerritos HS) posted the team's fifth straight goal to start the fourth quarter, while Carbajal went on to lead the team with four goals and three assists on the day. Freshman Angelina Romero (Schurr HS) recorded three first-half goals, and added four steals, as did freshman Miranda Alvarez (Schurr HS), while Wisher also contributed a trio of steals. 

Seeing her first action since September 15, freshman goalkeeper Leslie Meza (California HS) returned to finish with 14 saves in the win.

Photos by Daryl Peterson