Water Polo Finishes 8th Place in SCC

The Pasadena City College women’s water polo team nearly improved its South Coast Conference standing by a few places, but a 16-15 overtime loss to Rio Hondo prevented the Lancers that opportunity. The Lancers went 1-3 at the SCC Championship tournament November 6-8 at Mt. San Antonio College. They closed their 2014 season at 3-22 overall.

PCC won a play-in game v. Los Angeles Trade Tech, 23-2, on November 6. In that victory, sophomore Stephanie Velasco scored five goals and assisted on five others. Letterman Lisa Munoz added five goals and four assists. The Lancers made the most of their shot opportunites, netting 23 of 29 attempts (.793 percentage), and won for the second time v. the Beavers.

Freshman standout Ariahn Givens added four goals and five steals while sophomore Caroline Liu scored four goals. Freshman Sharon Perez tallied two goals and four steals, first-year player Vanessa Natividad two goals, and reserve Melissa Arauz-Hernandez converted a goal and two steals.

PCC next played against then conference leader Mt. San Antonio and after falling behind 7-0 in the first quarter battled back before falling 16-8. Givens scored three goals and made eight steals while Velasco had three goals. That set up the team’s contest v. Rio Hondo. Velasco scored a career-high eight goals (13 shots) while Liu had three goals and two assists. Natividad added two scores. The Lancers had lost two earlier meetings with the Roadrunners by 16-7 and 14-7 counts, but tied Rio Hondo often and extended the match into the extra session.

The Lancers played flat in the seventh place final v. El Camino and ended the year in an 11-5 defeat. Velasco again recorded three goals to finish with 19 goals in the four tournament matches. Chaffey won the SCC title.

Velasco finished her PCC career as the school’s second-leading all-time goals scorer with 140, 77 this year. Givens broke the PCC single-season record for steals with 126 and only needs three steals next season to become the Lancers’ all-time leader in that department. Givens, who scored 42 goals, led the team in assists with 32. Goaltender Alenoush Aslanian, a two-year starter, recorded 93 saves and 222 for her community college career.

[Photo Combo–Ariahn Givens (17, top) and Stephanie Velasco (10, bottom) in action during the season-ending SCC Championships held November 6-8 at Mt. San Antonio College, images created by Richard Quinton.