Sierra, American River, West Valley, San Joaquin Delta advance at NorCal Regional

Photo by Matt Folsom, West Valley College Athletics
Photo by Matt Folsom, West Valley College Athletics
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Team Stats

November 9, 2018

NorCal Brackets

SARATOGA - Top-seeded Sierra, along with Big 8 mates American River and San Joaquin Delta, posted opening round wins Friday at the of the 2018 CCCAA Women's Water Polo NorCals in smokey Saratoga. Joining the conference trio in Saturday's semifinals will be host West Valley.

Sierra (25-2-2) opens Saturday against Highway 80 rival and 5th-seeded American River (14-6) at 9:00am, followed by #2 Delta (20-9) and #3 West Valley (23-6). The winners meet for the regional title at 5:30pm, with the losers squaring off in 2:30's 3rd place game.

FRIDAY
#1 Sierra over #8 Santa Rosa Jr. College 24-7
The Wolverines rode two goals apiece from Stephanie Friesen and Sahnti Reisinger to a 5-0 lead over the Bear Cubs at the end of one and were never threatened. SRJC picked up five of its own in the second quarter, thanks to four scores from Makayla Jordan. Sierra would outscore Santa Rosa 11-2 in the second half to swim away with the win. Reisinger finished with three goals, as did Wolverines Cierra Crouch, Grace O'Callahan, Sydney Vanderpool and Hannah Perry. Jordan found the back of the cage five times to lead the Bear Cubs.

#2 San Joaquin Delta over #7 Las Positas 11-4
The Mustangs also held their first-round opponent without a goal in the first quarter, as they outscored the Hawks 3-0 on their way to then 11-4 decision. Three third period goals extended Delta's lead to 9-2 and the two teams traded goals in the fourth for the final. Delta's Hanna Black scored a goal in each quarter for a game-high four, while Hunter Luna and Miranda Mora added two each. Negin Tehranian-Torgabeh paced Las Positas with a pair of tallies.

#3 West Valley over #6 Diablo Valley 13-5
West Valley rallied from a 3-2 first-quarter deficit to capture Friday's battle of Vikings. Allie Ruzsa picked up a pair of second quarter scores as WVC outscored DVC 5-1. West Valley shut out Diablo Valley 4-0 in the third, thanks to three more goals from Ruzsa. Ruzsa paced the WVC stat sheets with a game-high six goals, and Sierra Ceballos and Sabrina Esteves netted three apiece. Kaelin Betschart had three goals and Haly Darr had a pair for Diablo Valley.

5 American River over #4 Merced 9-3
 The Beavers topped the Blue Devils to become the day's only lower seed to overcome a higher seed. Abby Fulton had a second-period hat trick that staked the Beavers to a 5-2 lead at the break. ARC's Kiara Green scored three of her game-high four goals in the fourth to help the Beavers pull away. Nicole Groteguth led Merced with two tallies.

(Matt Folsom, West Valley Athletics)