Pirates impressive in season-opening tournament

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College women's water polo team broke in its new Aquatic Pavilion in style with an impressive performance this weekend against some of the top teams in the region.

Coast kicked things off with a matchup against Mt. San Antonio on Friday morning and after an early back-and-forth between the two teams, Coast pulled away in the second quarter and rolled to a 20-9 win over the Mounties.

After the Pirates grabbed a 5-4 lead in the second quarter, Coast ripped off five of the next seven goals to take a 10-6 lead into halftime. Journey Werner had three goals during that stretch and things looked good for the hosts. 

The Mounties stuck around and trailed my that same four-goal deficit at 13-9 before the Pirates dominated in the fourth quarter with seven straight goals to blow things open.Delaney Lewellyn scored two goals in the fourth, while five other Pirates -- Werner, Destiny Hernandez, Kayla Yamamoto, Samantha Orozco and Alex Arriero -- found the back of the next in the final period. 

Annabelle Sherman notched 11 saves for the Pirates in the opening-round win.

Later that day, the Pirates hosted Palomar and it was more of the same as Coast matched the final score from the opener and topped the Comets, 20-9.

Rachel Sherman led the OCC offense with six goals, while Orozco had four goals and Yoshikawa and Hernandez each added three goals.

Coast wore down the Comets in the middle periods, outscoring the opposition 10-2 over that span.

The level of play went up significantly on Day 2 as OCC opened things with a matchup against fellow Orange Empire Conference rival (and defending state champion) Fullerton College. The last time these two teams played was back in 2019 and it wasn't pretty as the Hornets cruised to a 17-4 win. 

This time, things were MUCH different as both clubs traded blows throughout the first half, with Fullerton holding an 8-7 advantage at the break.

The turning point came in the third quarter when the Pirates had three 6-on-5 advantages and one 5-meter penalty shot, but could not convert on any of them and the Hornets pulled ahead 13-7 with one quarter to go.

But the Pirates fought back and held the Hornets scoreless the rest of the way, while scoring three goals of their own to pull to within three before time expired.

Sherman again led the way with four goals, while Hernandez and Lewellyn each had two. Sherman was strong in goal with 10 saves against of the top teams in the state.

In the afternoon matchup, Coast took on another OEC foe ... Riverside City College ... and the Pirates prevailed, 13-6 over the 2019 state runners-up. 

Riverside came out strong early on and jumped out to a 3-0 lead. But, Faith Cuevas scored a pair of goals in the first quarter to highlight a 5-1 run, giving Coast a 5-4 advantage after the opening eight minutes.

From there, the Pirates picked up their game and outscored RCC 7-0 over the middle two quarters of play and cruised from there.

Hernandez led the way with four goals, while Cuevas, Werner and Perla Estrada each added a pair.

OCC will return to action on Wednesday at Cypress College for an OEC matchup, beginning at 4 p.m. The Pirates' next home contest will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 29 against Riverside, also at 4 p.m.