The Long Beach City College women's water polo team suffered a narrow 5-3 loss at Cerritos College on Wednesday in both team's South Coast Conference opener.

The loss dropped Long Beach to 1-2 overall and 0-1 in the SCC while Cerritos improved to 5-0 at 1-0 in conference play.

The low-scoring game saw the Vikings get on the board first, as sophomore Christine Meier (pictured) scored with 7:36 left in the first quarter.

Cerritos' Adriana Rodriguez and Shelby Gleason followed with goals to give Cerritos a 2-1 lead before Katherine Gabayeron scored with 7:34 left in the second quarter. The Falcons never relinquished the lead and held off Long Beach each time they scored to get within a goal.

Coming out in the third quarter with a 4-3 lead, Gabayeron gave the Falcons their 5-3 advantage with 6:40 remaining in the third quarter on a nice feed from Gleason.

There would be no more scoring the remainder of the game, although Long Beach had a goal disallowed in the fourth quarter when the officials ruled that sophomore Krysta Fryer was inside the 2-meter line.

Meier led the Vikings with two goals while freshman Jackie Rojas posted LBCC's other goal. Sophomore Lindsay Smith posted nine saves in goal for Long Beach.

Long Beach returns to action next Wednesday (Sep 21) when it travels to El Camino College for a 3 pm South Coast Conference game.