Ventura, CA (Women’s Water Polo) – It was a bitter sweet weekend for the Citrus College women’s water polo team. The Lady Owl’s continued to put their stamp on the record books, but they failed to advance out of the Western State Conference Championship Tournament and grab a SoCal Tournament bid.
The Owl’s lost their first match-up of the weekend to Ventura, losing 5-8. Stand out goalie Heather Curtis blocked 17 shots, while Ivonne Garcia accounted for all 5 of the Lady Owl’s goals in the loss.
In their second game, the Lady Owl’s faired much better beating up on Santa Monica 17-6. Garcia scored 8 goals, while grabbing 5 steals, and recording 3 assists. Stephanie Emery also recorded 3 goals and 4 assists. Curtis recorded 13 more blocked shots, while getting 5 assists and 2 steals. With the win the Lady Owl’s took 3rd place in the WSC Tournament.
Garcia, whose impressive run in the tournament was indicative of her play throughout the entire season, also broke a Citrus College record, breaking the previous record of 98 goals in a season previously held by Denis Valderrama. Garcia finished out the year with 102 goals, breaking the previous record by 4 goals.
Goalie Curtis continued her blazing through the record books, by breaking the state saves record for saves in a season. The previous record of 334 was held by College of the Canyons Therese Gilmore. Curtis broke the record by 3, totaling 337 saves this season. Earlier in the year Curtis broke the Citrus College records for saves in a season, saves in a game, and assists in a season.
The Lady Owl’s finish their season at .500 with an overall record of 11-11 and conference record of 3-3.