Women’s Water Polo: No. 9 Long Beach knocked off by Mt. SAC, 12-9

Sophomore Ranya El-Tawil (Wilson HS) scored four goals but it wasn't enough as the No. 9 state-ranked Long Beach City College women's water polo team suffered a 12-9 South Coast Conference loss to visiting Mt. San Antonio College on Wednesday.

After a playing to a 1-1 tie in the first quarter, the Mounties broke the game open by outscoring the Vikings 5-1 in the second. LBCC trailed 6-3 at could never recover.

Mt. SAC (12-6, 6-0 SCC) took its biggest lead of the game at 10-5 after a goal by Kristen Swafford at the 6:01 mark in fourth. But the Vikings made one last push that came up short. Katherine White (Lakewood HS) scored for Long Beach and McKayla Thomas (Millikan HS) added consecutive goals to get the Vikings within two at 10-8 with 2:58 left in the contest.

Kerstin Laye's goal with 1:24 to go snapped the Vikings' scoring streak and put the game out of reach.

Thomas scored three goals for the Vikings and Adrienne Alaniz (Wilson HS) added a second-quarter goal.

Later in the night, Long Beach returned to the pool in Huntington Beach and lost 20-7 to undefeated (17-0) and top-ranked Golden West College.

Long Beach, now 8-9 overall and 3-2 in conference play, returns to action on Friday (Oct 18) when it will compete at the Riverside mini tournament. Then on Saturday (Oct 19), the Vikings will host their annual Alumni game at 12 p.m.

Photo by Chris Ruiz