Women’s Water Polo Falls Short of Goal

Fresno City College’s Women’s Water Polo lost 7-15 against Sierra College in a game played at Fresno High School on Oct. 19.

The Rams fell short, despite a valiant second half effort.

FCC struggled throughout the first half of the game with Sierra’s offense dominating throughout this period.

Thankfully for FCC, goalie Candice Islas blocked a few potential goals against Sierra during the first half that would have made their lead even more significant.

FCC was down 0-9 by the end of the first half, but thankfully two meter Alison Baker scored the team’s first goal early on during the second half of the game.

In response to FCC’s first goal, Sierra attacker Mairi Jo Jones scored another goal for the visiting team.

Baker went on to score FCC’s second goal, following Jones’ goal.

The second half was where FCC pushed through with their momentum during their offensive plays. Collaboration within the team was at a more elevated level compared to the first half.

This was the case when FCC attacker Shelby Seybold scored the team’s third goal of the game, followed by two more goals from DR’s Aneesha Nagra and Margaret Walsh.

Despite their strength continuing to build throughout the second half with more goals, Sierra’s lead was already too significant for FCC to sufficiently catch up.

Sierra continued to add more goals to their scorecard, ultimately scoring four more points to increase their lead against FCC.

Towards the end of the game, Nagra scored a point with attacker McKenna Davis scoring FCC’s final goal of the game.

“We had a big defensive presence in this game,” said head coach Gianna Rossi.  “Margaret Wash in particular is always helping out her teammates playing defensively.”

Coach Rossi also stated that the team has room for improvement in regards to dealing with the opposing team’s pressing.

“We were a caught a bit off guard from Sierra’s pressing,” Rossi said. “We struggled getting the ball around the perimeter, but we can learn a lot from this game.”