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The women’s water polo team opened its 2011 season with a catastrophic 16-2 loss against the highly rated Chaffey College.

“I was surprised,” said Coach Terry Stoddard. “I thought it would be a close game. We played against a more experienced team.”

 PCC was saved from a shutout by Makenzie Blank who scored The Lancers’ only two goals. Shelby Gregg had two saves and Naoni Padilla had seven.

With only two goals and four missed penalty shots, PCC’s 12 out of 13 freshmen roster really showed. “We had twelve freshmen and started seven,” said Stoddard. “I chose to play everyone to give them more experience.”

PCC failed to capitalize on the fouls by Chaffey and struggled with the shot clock. “Our offense stalled,” said Stoddard.

Chaffey wasted no time in the first quarter scoring goal after goal on PCC’s inexperienced defense, making it seven to zero.

In the second quarter, PCC’s offense pulled through and made its first goal but failed to make a penalty shot, while the defense was unable to keep up with Chaffey. The Lancers struggled for control of the ball and allowed Chaffey to score five more goals.

In the third quarter, PCC failed to capitalize on steals and made its second and final goal of the game, while Chaffey was slowed down a bit by PCC’s defense and scored only three goals.

In the fourth quarter PCC held Chaffey to only one goal while the Chaffey defense prevented a PCC come-back with good defensive coverage.

On the loss, Stoddard said, “It was a tremendous learning experience and we’ve been working on our defense since then.”

The Lancers play Chaffey again on Oct. 15, in the Citrus tournament.

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