Owls Finish Second for Second Straight Year

Valley Glen, CA - For the second straight year, the Citrus College Men's Water Polo program came up just short of it's overall a goal, a conference championship, and instead settled for a strong second place finish. The Owls opened up the 2015 WSC Championships with a 20-14 win over #3 Cuesta College before falling to a single goal to #1 LA Valley College for the second time this year 14-15. 

In the opening round on Thursday, Citrus jumped out to a 6-2 lead over the Cougars and never looked back. The Owls outscored Cuesta 6-3 in the second and outscored them in the third too, before a rally by the Cougars came up well shy. Sophomore Jonathan Lotero was the teams leading scorer in the win with six goals, while freshman Daniel Velazquez had four goals and five assists while sophomore goalie Brad Thomson had 12 blocks. 

After the win, Citrus turned their attention to LA Valley on Saturday afternoon in the Championship Game. The Owls fell behind early as the Monarchs scored six goals in the first quarter, compared to four by Citrus. The two teams each pumped in three goals a piece to make the score 7-9 in favor of Valley at the break. In the third quarter, Citrus finally gained some ground with a 5-4 period that saw Citrus crawl to within a goal at 13-12. The Owls couldn't get over the hump though in the fourth as both teams scored twice, and the Monarchs hung on for the win.

Velazquez led the Owls in scoring on the day, pouring in seven goals. Looter added three, while freshman Mark Naranjo and sophomore Mark Cordts each had a team high three steals. Thomson stopped nine shots in the loss.

With the win and the loss Citrus' regular season record ends with a 21-6 mark. The Owls will wait until Sunday to find out their seeding fate for the 2015 SoCal Playoffs at Mt. San Antonio College next weekend.