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Posted: Oct 22, 2015

Owls Come Up Short Against LA Valley

Freshman goalie Nicole Parson had eight saves and three steals in Citrus' 9-6 loss to LA Valley College. Photo By: Brian Cone
Freshman goalie Nicole Parson had eight saves and three steals in Citrus' 9-6 loss to LA Valley College. Photo By: Brian Cone
Box Score

Glendora, CA -- The Citrus College Women's Water Polo team had a great opportunity on Wednesday afternoon to insert themselves into the top spot of the Western State Conference standings when they hosted first place Los Angeles Valley College. The Owls came up just short of that effort, falling to the Monarchs 9-6.

Wednesday's action didn't get off to the greatest of starts for Citrus. The Owls scored the game's first goal when sophomore Danielle DeHerrera worked her way inside the 5M and went top shelf just over a minute into the game. That would be the last score by Citrus in the first quarter though as they watched LA Valley score four straight to close out the quarter, putting Citrus in a three goal hole.

After the lackluster start in the first, Citrus began to battle their way back into the game in the second quarter. LA Valley briefly took a 5-1 lead, but Citrus got two goals from freshman Jessica Carmody with a strike from sophomore Klarissa Gastelum-Zavala in the middle that cut the deficit to one 5-4 with 1:52 to go. The Owls couldn't quite get out of the quarter though unscathed, as Valley scored once more with 55 seconds left in the half to go into halftime up 6-4.

In the third, Citrus continued to chip away at the Monarch lead. Freshman Gabriella Galbraith made it 6-5 with a goal at the 6:03 mark. Carmody would tie things up a minute later when she found the top right corner of the goal from deep. That would be the last score by Citrus for the rest of the contest. LA Valley would go on to retake the lead with 3:01 left in the third quarter, and would score twice more in the fourth to distance themselves by three goals.

In the loss, Citrus was plagued by turnovers, turning the ball over 20 times on the day. Carmody led all Owl scorers with three goals, while sophomore Abbey Sorensen won four out of four sprints and had a team high three assists. Freshman goalie Nicole Parsonstopped eight shots on the afternoon and had a team high three steals.

With the loss, Citrus drops to 16-6 overall and 4-2 in WSC play. The Owls have some more tough sledding ahead as they participate in the 2015 truWest Battle at the Beach, which features arguably the best teams from around Southern California, this weekend. Citrus opens up the tournament against Golden West College at 8:00 AM on Friday at Cypress College.