Water polo not bothered by road bump

The Lancers finished the Citrus Tournament with a 1-2 record over the weekend after coming into the tournament on a three-game win streak.

Pasadena was unable to play their second game of the double header on the first day of the tournament between San Diego Miramar due to cancellation because the Jets were unable to field their team. As a result, the match was recorded as a no contest.

The Lancers did, however, play and win their first game of the tournament against Santa Monica, 13-6.

Pasadena quickly raced to an 8-0 lead by the end of the first quarter and never looked back. Kyrsten Proctor led the charge by scoring all four of her goals during that run.

Sophomores Sharon Perez and Ariahn Givens each added a pair of goals in the winning effort.

The Lancers participated in a double header on the final day of the tournament as they faced host Citrus College in the morning and LA Valley College in the afternoon.

“There is no doubt that we made errors to allow chances for the other team to score,” said head coach Terry Stoddard. “The ball bounces funny sometimes and it bounced in favor for them than it did for us.”

Despite keeping pace with Citrus, PCC fell short in the back-and-forth affair, losing 11-7.

Both teams came out of the gates on the run as both squads nicely set up their attacks with great shot selection and positioning.

The goaltenders on both teams stepped up to the plate and answered the call with timely saves to give their respective teams a chance to pull away with a victory.

Just one minute into the second quarter, Pasadena’s Ariahn Givens dumped a nice pass to the hole set where Kyrsten Proctor was positioned for a sure goal. However, the Owls goaltender Jenna Elder stopped the shot from point blank range.

Every time a goal was scored, the opposing team responded with a goal of their own, keeping the defenders on their heels.

Pasadena was unable to maintain that pace, however, as they cracked under pressure by letting the game slip away, allowing the Owls to go on a 4-0 run to secure the win after Ariahn Givens converted on a penalty shot to cut the deficit to one (8-7) in the fourth quarter.

The Lancers looked like a sharper team in the second game of the double header on Saturday against LA Valley as the players did a better job with communication as the game progressed.

The Lancers had an early hiccup that was cured a minute into the game as Ariahn Givens turned the ball over to the Monarchs’ Ani Aghakhanian, who darted the other way on a fast break and earned a power play but failed to cash in.

Pasadena was gelling on defense as they forced turnovers by flustering LA Valley attackers with double-teams, which had the Lancers only trailing by one heading into halftime.

PCC goalie Clarque DeYoung demonstrated why she was the one of the best netminders in the tournament as she saved two laser shots from going in when LA Valley came knocking on the door early in the second half.

Pasadena executed on defense but was not able to find that kind of success on offense as the Lancers came up empty on scoring chances and created turnovers of their own that the Monarchs took advantage of.

“The tournament brought out the best in us,” said Daisza Caldwell.

LA Valley netted five goals in the second half to escape and improve to 12-4 in the season to stay on top of the Western State Conference ahead.

“It’s nice knowing that we can show up and play against better teams because that benefits us come playoff time,” said Kyrsten Proctor.

The Lancers search for their fourth straight conference win when they travel to Cerritos on Wednesday to take on the Falcons.