SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Vaquero women's water polo team served as the hosts of the SBCC Halloween Invitational this past weekend, going 3-1 in their games at Santa Barbara High School.
After falling to West Valley 8-5 on Friday, the Vaqueros (24-5 overall, 5-0 WSC) won their last three non-exhibition games on Saturday, defeating Cerritos 9-7 in overtime, beating LA Valley 9-5 and closing the weekend out with a 16-0 thrashing of LA Pierce.
SBCC 9, Cerritos 7 (OT)
The Vaqueros flexed their resiliency in their opening win on Saturday, as Cerritos took the lead four different times but was never able to pull away. SBCC trailed 5-3 early in the fourth before ending regulation on a 3-1 run with two goals from Charlize Winter and an Emily Clapham equalizer in the dying minutes.
They fell behind yet again in overtime, but SBCC found an answer once more. Megan Ditlof's second and final goal of the game gave the Vaqueros their first lead with 2:11 left in overtime. Less than a minute later, Eden Tal also put away her second goal to cap a 3-0 run and a 9-7 come-from-behind victory.
Goalkeeper Chloe Mckay tallied six saves. Tal drew four exclusions and tied Ditlof for the team-lead with three steals.
SBCC 9, LA Valley 5
Not long after their win over Cerritos, the Vaqueros made it two straight in a 9-5 win over LA Valley. SBCC jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back.
For the second straight game, three Vaqueros scored twice as the team put away nine goals total. Sadie Mead and Eden Tal combined for their four scores in the opening period. Emily Clapham also nabbed two goals to go along with a game-high three field blocks. Mckay recorded seven saves in the cage.
SBCC 16, LA Pierce 0
Following a closely fought 11-10 defeat to the UCSB Club Team, the Vaqueros dominated LA Pierce 16-0 for their first shutout of the year.
Sadie Mead came into the day without a hat trick in 2021, but she would set a season-high with five goals. Elina Borghoff scored four times for the second time this season. Angelina Adams also had three goals, reaching that mark for the third time.
Mckay helped keep the shutout by posting 11 saves, the highest total in her last 10 outings.
Next Up
SBCC will take the No. 1 seed into this week's WSC Tournament. The Vaqueros face No. 4 LA Valley College this Friday, Nov. 5 at 2:45 p.m. at Citrus College.
