Posted: Oct 01, 2015

A Big Step Forward

Sophomore Danielle DeHerrera scored the game winner with 48 seconds left in Citrus' 9-8 conference win over Ventura. Photo By: Brian Cone

Glendora, CA -- The Citrus College Women's Water Polo program took a big step forward on Wednesday afternoon when they hosted Ventura College in Western State Conference play. The Owls held off a late Pirate rally and defeated Ventura for the first time in nine tries in conference play with a 9-8 win on the day.

The Owls got on the board first, when sophomore Danielle DeHerrera found the back of the net off an assist from sophomore Klarissa Gastelum-Zavala with 4:42 left in the first. Freshman Jessica Carmody would give the Owls a 2-0 lead with 2:23 to go when she finished a 5M shot, but Ventura rallied late with two goals in the final 2:06 that kept the game knotted at 2-2 headed into the second.

In the second quarter, Citrus came out with the first goal, getting a strike from sophomore Mary Marie McCreary just a minute and three seconds into the quarter. The Pirates rallied with back to back scores to put Citrus behind for the first time in the day, but the Owls responded getting a goal from Carmody with 2:50 to go in the half off a pass from sophomore Elaine Hodge that tied it back up. Around a minute later freshman Gabriella Galbraith took a pass from McCreary and made the score 5-4, where it would stay at the half.

Citrus quickly extended their lead in the third, getting yet another goal from Carmody on their first possession of the second half. The two schools would trade a goal each over the final seven minutes of the half, with the Owls going into the final quarter up 7-5 after another score from DeHerrera.

DeHerrera would keep her magic going in the fourth with a goal two minutes and fifty seconds into the quarter with Gastelum-Zavala notching the assist to make it 8-5, the Owls' largest lead of the day. That's when Ventura made their move scoring three goals over the next 5:02 to tie the game up at 8-8.

With the game on the line, the Owls got exactly what they needed when DeHerrera came through huge in a big spot scoring on a skip shot inside the five-meter line off a pass from Carmody that made it 9-8 with 48 seconds left. Needing one stop, Citrus got exactly that when Carmody ripped a steal from the Ventura player inside the Owls five meters to sealing Citrus' first victory over Ventura in conference play since 2008, when they also won 9-8.

In the win, DeHerrera led all scorers with four goals. Carmody added three to go along with one assist and five steals. Abbey Sorensen, McCreary and Gastelum-Zavala all had a pair of assists, while Sorensen added three steals defensively. Not to be outdone, freshman goalie Nicole Parsons put together a stellar performance with 13 saves and a steal.

With the win, Citrus improves to 9-2 overall and 2-1 in WSC play. The Owls will be in action again this coming weekend in the 18th Annual San Diego Women's Water Polo Classic hosted by San Diego Mesa College. The Owls start the weekend off on Friday against their host San Diego Mesa at 1:00 PM, followed by a tilt with Southwestern at 4:00 PM.