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After winning their season-opening game at the Los Angeles Valley tournament, the women’s water polo team suffered a tough loss against Chaffey College this past Wednesday during their South Coast Conference game opener.

Chaffey took the lead 2-0 in the first quarter. The Lancers responded by scoring two goals during the second quarter but Chaffey kept the lead and by the end of the first half of the match, the score was 5-2.

The Lancers managed to scored one more goal at the beginning of the third quarter.

“We scored the first goal of the third period. We were a two goal game, it was 5-3, that’s a very respectable game,” head coach Terry Stoddard said. “We were beating them in the half court, basically half court game and then they started counter attacking and we didn’t respond well and they ran off six goals in a row and went up 11-3.”

The final score was 14-3. Regardless, team captain and utility scorer Ariahn Givens has high hopes for this year’s season.

“We played well the first half but then towards the second half of the game I know that people got tired, they couldn’t keep up, swimming-wise,” Givens said. “I feel like we need to condition just a little bit more. It was the first game of our season for our conference at least and I would just say we need to talk a little bit more and kind of get to know how we play with each other so we kind of have a feel for each other … And I think if we practice a little bit more as a team then we’ll be stronger in that aspect.”

Even though the Lancers might’ve had a rough SCC opener, this year’s team features several new talented additions. One of them is freshman Clarque DeYoung, the new goalie who made 14 saves.

Among the other new players are utility scorer Kyrsten Proctor, who was an All-RHC First Team selection, and utility scorer Irma Sarac, who, along with Proctor and DeYoung, was a member of the Pasadena Star-News All-Area team.

“There’s 10 girls on the team. We have three returning sophomores, so we have seven new freshmen and Irma Sarac is one of them and you know, they’ve done a really good job so far,” Stoddard said. “These are first team all Rio Hondo League players for their respective high school … They are all first team players for their three high schools and they are a huge addition. I think the three sophomores we have are clicking really well with them and it may take a few more games. We play 28 games so it sometimes takes a little while for us to connect.”

DeYoung also feels optimistic about the season.

“I feel like we can always learn something from our games, so each game is a good learning experience,” she said.

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