The Rio Hondo College women’s water polo team faced Cerritos College this past Sep. 7 for their first South Coast Conference match of the season. Head coach Todd Lim and assistant coach Uriel Villa had a quick pep talk with the team before the match started, letting them know what to expect from their opponents that evening.

The players lined up alongside the edge of the pool in an orderly fashion before they all dove in and got into their positions in the pool. It was not long into the game before the opposing Cerritos side got on the scoreboard.

Both teams gave the game their all, unfortunately it was Cerritos who was more accurate with their shots and they continued to bombard the Rio Hondo goalie.

Neither team had difficulty staying under the 35-second shot-clock, but Rio Hondo struggled to find the back of the net against Cerritos, with the opposing goalie blocking nearly everything that came her way. Cerritos did a very good job of cutting off angles defensively, making it even harder for Rio Hondo to find their stride.

As the game progressed, both teams were very well balanced and actually maintained offensive possession of the ball for the entire 35-seconds. This allowed both teams to create shooting options, but time and time again the Cerritos goalie continued to save almost every shot.

With Rio Hondo struggling to find their form, a few players ended up getting excluded from the game for committing violations which saw them leave the pool for 20 seconds or were substituted out for another player.

Rio Hondo ended up losing to Cerritos by a score of 18-3, as the Falcons showed no mercy to their Roadrunner opponents that afternoon.

Rio Hondo will next be traveling to Saddleback College for an invitational tournament going on from Sep. 9-10 where they will face the likes of Fullerton as well as two other colleges that are yet to be named.