The Santa Rosa Junior College women’s and men’s water polo teams both suffered disappointing losses to American River in their opening home games on Oct. 9.
Despite fighting hard throughout the entire game, the women’s team suffered a defeat of 22-11. The men’s team followed with a 30-8 blowout loss.
Head coach Jill McCormick believes both teams are making progress.
“Both teams are much improved from last season and continue to improve each game,” McCormick said. “Our men’s team also improved significantly over last season as well. They have three wins already against Cabrillo [twice] and Merced. All of our wins so far have been outside of our conference.”
Women’s Water Polo
The women’s team started slow and struggled on defense, with American River scoring the first eight goals of the game. With 1:32 left in the first quarter, SRJC’s Riley West scored a goal off of an assist from Maddie West for the Bear Cubs only goal in the first quarter.
Rose Williams scored the next two goals for the Bear Cubs in the second quarter with assists from Jada Andrews and Taylor Owen. Stella Clarkson scored the following goal for the Bear Cubs off of an assist from Riley West. Williams scored the final two goals of the first half for the Bear Cubs, both off assists from Clarkson, cutting the deficit to 13-6.
“I love the group,” said Bear Cubs assistant coach Dan Greaves. “Most of our team came back from last year so they’re returners. Last year was our first year back as a program. None of them had ever played so they were all first-time-ever players, and now they’re all second year players. We have a couple freshmen that are helping out a lot as well. They all work hard. They’re rapidly improving and I love them.”
The women’s team continued to struggle in the second half, only scoring two goals during the third quarter.
Owen scored SRJC’s first goal of the second half with an assist from Addison Klosevitz. Clarkson scored the final goal of the quarter for the Bear Cubs with the assist from Rylee Humble, cutting the deficit to 19-8.
Rose Williams, Taylor Owen and Stanislava Holzhauser all scored unassisted goals in the final quarter of play, making the final score 22-11.
Despite the tough loss, goalie Victoria Doane believes there’s always room for improvement.
“Since I’m goalie, I probably could’ve just kept my hands closer to the surface of the water so I don’t have to drag them up through the water every time,” Doane said. “So far I’m really enjoying this season.. We’ve all gelled really well together, and there’s been little to no problems between the players.”
Men’s Water Polo
The men’s team struggled out of the gate as well, with American River taking a quick 6-0 lead.
SRJC’s Enrique Jimenez scored the Bear Cubs first goal of the game with 1:22 left in the first quarter, cutting their deficit to 6-1. Jimenez scored another unassisted goal for the Bear Cubs during the second quarter.
Goals from Ben Gradus, Sebastian King Gile, and Cole Morris brought the score to 15-5. King Gile finished the first half with an unassisted goal, making the score 15-6.
The men’s team had a sluggish start to the second half, not scoring for the duration of the third quarter and letting American River take a commanding 27-6 lead.
Jimenez and Chris Miller scored goals in the fourth quarter to cut the lead slightly. Regardless, American River cruised to an easy victory over the Bear Cubs with a final score of 30-8.
“[We’re] a little bit more talented [than last year], we got a really good freshman class and our two starters from last year are pretty good players,” Greaves said. “They’re working hard and are definitely more competitive. Again, last year was our first year back as a program so it was tough to kind of start new, but we’re much more competitive and scoring a lot of goals, and goals are our way up this year so everything’s all great.”
Despite the Bear Cubs showing signs of fatigue and not performing well throughout the game, Attacker Jackson Nail had a more than positive outlook on his and the team’s performance.
“I just played my heart out in the water today. American River is one of our hardest competitions but we all still played our hearts out today. We’re excited to be Bear Cubs and we just want to keep playing,” Nail said. “I think I could’ve just been more positive. Even when we’re going down that much, I think I just need to keep my head up no matter what and have fun.
Even though the Bear Cubs suffered a brutal loss at home, Nail still enjoys every second of the water polo team.
“[I’m] loving it, I really love the community that’s a part of it, I’m so grateful to be playing this sport and to be playing at the JC, and I’m just proud to be a Bear Cub,” Nail said.
Despite both teams suffering brutal home losses, McCormick still saw possessions where the Bear Cubs found their rhythm.
“Regarding yesterday’s conference games against American River… The women unfortunately got down early and our top defender, Maddie West got into foul trouble early, but later in the game we found our rhythm and began to make better adjustments that led to more scoring,” McCormick said. “The ARC men are 3-0 and currently ranked No.1 in the Big 8 and are currently ranking in the top 5 in the state, so although we put some solid possessions together, we were unable to stop their ferocious counter attacks and fast breaks.”
The next home games for both the women’s and men’s water polo teams will be Wednesday Oct. 30 at 3:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. against Modesto.
