Men’s Water Polo Stumped by LA Valley

In the third Conference match for the Men's Water Polo team, the Owls were stopped in their tracks in a tight game against the LA Valley College Monarchs. The final score of the game, 9-8 in favor of the Monarchs, proved to be yet another intense match up for the Owls who have now gone 1-3 in their last four matches. After a 15 game-winning streak, it seems as if Citrus has hit a roadblock in their season. The Owls still lead in first place in front of LA Valley College in the Western State Conference with a Conference record of 2-1 and an overall season record of 16-4. Citrus has also yet to be severely outscored by opponents in their last three losses, and in their last match proved that they will make you work for every win.

In an intense and very valuable conference matchup, the Owls came out swinging as they netted 4 goals in the first quarter, 3 of which came from Johnathan Wong, who lead the offense with 4 goals for the day. The Monarchs quickly responded late in the first quarter with 2 goals of their own in the last minute to cut the lead to 2. Citrus regrouped in the second quarter and seemed as if they found a groove and were going to run away with the game as they added 2 more goals. It was then, that the moment no one expected to happen, happened. The Monarchs rallied in the last minute of the second quarter to even up the score at 6-6. The third quarter was filled with back and forths for both teams as defense was the name of the game. It was in the fourth and final quarter that the Monarchs stunned the Owls and pulled away to seal a victory with 2 goals in the final minute of the match. The momentum of the game was in favor of the Monarchs and proved difficult for the Owls to take it back by the final whistle of the game.

Citrus will look to bounce back and regain the moment they had in the first half of their season in the Fullerton Mini Tournament this weekend.