Owls Come Up Short in Triangular

Glendora, CA - The Citrus College Women's Water Polo team played host to two of the best program's in the State on Thursday in the form of Riverside City College and San Joaquin Delta College. The Owls came up just short against the two schools falling to RCC in the opener 10-4 and SJ Delta 11-9 in the day's concluding game. 

 The Owls came out on fire against the Tigers in the opening match-up. Despite having it's shallowest bench of the season, Citrus held Riverside to 0 for 8 shooting in the first eight minutes, while getting a pair of scores from freshmen Lindsay Powell and Chloe Barrocas to take a 2-0 lead. Unfortunately for Citrus, the Tigers flipped the script in the second quarter as Citrus was held to 0 for 4 shooting in the second frame, while Riverside scored four unanswered to take a 4-2 lead into halftime.

In the second half, Riverside would open things up by scoring four more straight points, before Barrocas finally broke up the run with a 6-on-5 score with 41 seconds remaining in the third quarter. The Owls struggled to find any offensive rhythm in the final frame, giving up two more Tiger goals and getting just one more score, an unassisted strike by freshman Hunter Olivier with two minutes to go. Despite the disappointing result the Owls still had some positives in their game against one of the top teams in the State. Barrocas would finish with two goals, five steals, and a pair of exclusions drawn. Sophomore goalie Delaney Moller stopped 9 of the 19 shots she faced. 

After the set back to Riverside, Citrus took on the Mustangs to end the day. The two schools traded goals in the opening quarter with the game being knotted up at 3-3 heading into the second. The Owls would open up the second with scores by Olivier and Powell to briefly take a 5-3 lead. It was short lived however as Delta scored twice more before the break to go into halftime with the game tied at five. 

Citrus would again briefly take a lead, when Powell opened the third quarter with a score on the Owls' first possession. Delta would score on their next trip down the pool and then again a few possessions later, and then would head into the final quarter with their first lead to start a quarter at 7-6. Powell would once again come up huge, scoring a 6-on-5 goal to lead off the fourth and tie the game back up at 7. 

Delta would score two straight though, and despite two more scores by Powell, the Owls were never able to pull back even in what ended up a two goal loss. Powell would finish with a game high five goals, adding two assists. Olivier was the only other Owl to score more than once, scoring two goals and recording a game high five steals.  

With the losses, Citrus drops to 10-6 overall. The Owls will take the weekend off before resuming conference play on Wednesday with a huge meeting with Ventura College at 2:15 PM. The Owls will follow that up with a non-conference showdown with American River College.