Owls Finish 3rd at 2016 WSC Championships

San Luis Obispo, CA - The Citrus College Women's Water Polo team closed out their 2016 regular season over the weekend with a 3rd Place finish at the 2016 Western State Conference Water Polo Championships. The Owls opened up the weekend by avenging an earlier loss to Cuesta before falling in the semi-finals to #1 seed Santa Barbara City College. The Owls wrapped up the weekend by defeating Allan Hancock College in the third place game.

In the quarterfinal match-up with Cuesta, Citrus came out of the gate a tad slow falling behind the Cougars 2-0. The Owls finally turned things around three minutes in when freshman Hunter Olivier used a 6-on-5 chance to open flood gates. Olivier's goal sparked a 8-0 run by the Owls that ended on freshman Brooke Padilla's goal with 6:04 left in the second quarter that made it 8-2 in favor of the Owls.

Cuesta would break up the run with a pair of scores, but the Owls answered back with two more of their own before the half to go into the break ahead 10-4. The Cougars would never get any closer than five the rest of the way. Olivier led all Owl scorers with four goals, adding four assists and four steals for good measure. Freshman Alyssa Gonzalez scored four goals of her own and freshman Lindsay Powell added three. Freshman Chloe Barrocas rounded out the superlatives with five assists.

The semi-final showdown pit the Owls against arguably the best team in the State in Santa Barbara. Citrus held their own in the first quarter, trailing 6-2 after a pair of scores by Olivier in the first eight minutes of action. Things went downhill after that though, as the Vaqueros outscored the Owls 11-2 over the second and third quarters. Citrus scored three in the fourth, but Santa Barbara added four more in what ended up a 21-7 win for the Vaqueros.

After the rough showing in the semi-finals, Citrus took the day break from action to regroup on the Central Coast. It helped as the Owls defeated the Bulldogs of Allan Hancock 13-5. It wasn't an easy task as Hancock tied the game up at one goal each with 10 seconds left in the first quarter and then surged out in front in the second quarter 4-2. Only a goal by Gonzalez with 37 seconds left in the half made it a 3-4 deficit for Citrus going into halftime.

In the third, the Owls finally started clicking on all cylinders. Barrocas and Olivier each scored on Citrus' first two possessions of the half to give Citrus a 5-4 lead. Hancock would tie the game back up on their next trip down the pool, but the Owls would go on a 8-0 run to close out the game and secure the 13-5 victory.

In the win, Olivier scored five times, recorded two assists, stole two balls, and drew a pair of exclusions. Gonzalez scored three more goals for Citrus, while Barrocas had four assists and three steals. Sophomore goalie Delany Moller was strong in the cage, stopping 10 of the 15 shots she faced.

With the two wins and the loss, Citrus moves to 23-10 overall on the year and 6-4 in WSC play. The Owls will likely receive their first ever bid to the Southern California Regional Championships, but won't find out until Sunday afternoon.