No. 5 Women’s Water Polo Edged in OEC Championship Semifinals

The Riverside City College women's water polo team entered into the Orange Empire Conference (OEC) Championships as the second overall seed after landing in a three-way tie for the top spot during regular season. Their second seeding earned them a first-round bye awaiting the winner of No. 6 Cypress and No. 3 Orange Coast.

Orange Coast routed Cypress, 16-7, advancing them to the semifinals against the Tigers with both teams battling to play for a conference championship on Saturday night.

It was a low scoring game, but the Pirates made the first significant dent on the scoreboard by jumping out to a 3-0 lead with two minutes left in the first quarter. Freshman Jessie Nelson hummed home a score to trim the Pirate's lead to two scores right before the second quarter.

Riverside gained some momentum on both ends in the second half. Sophomore goalkeeper Gabriella Fisher tallied two clutch saves on penalty shots, while sophomore tandem Lauren Nelson and Taylor Mason scored their first goals of the game to bring a one-score deficit into halftime.

The third quarter the Pirates and Tigers traded goals to bring the score to 5-4 in the Pirate's favor. The fourth quarter ensued and the game was up for grabs. Both teams trade goals with Taylor Masson scoring two clutch goals, backed by a score from J. Nelson to tie the game at seven all with plenty of time remaining.

However, a goal from Orange Coast to grab the lead at 8-7 early in the fourth quarter was never answered, thus leading to an 8-7 loss.

Fisher (15-8) finished with seven saves, while Mason led with four goals.

Riverside will play for third place against fifth-seeded Golden West on Saturday at 11:10 am.