The women’s water polo team broke in the new Cerritos Aquatic Center in style on Oct. 14, when it beat LA Trade Tech, 18-0.
Ten different players scored for the Falcons, led by Melinda Guevara and Nicole Tuning who scored three goals each.
Cerritos, now 5-0 in conference and 20-1 overall, take on rivals Long Beach Wednesday in a rematch of last year’s state championship game that coach Sergio Macias is looking forward to.
He believes the match against Long Beach will be a great opportunity for his team to truly break in the new pool.
“We will get a better feel for what it’s like [playing at home] on Wednesday,” he said.
[Long Beach] is a good team, and we may face them three or four times this year, so it’s an important game for us.”
In the mean time, the game against LA Trade-Tech was a prime opportunity for Cerritos to fine-tune its skills.
The Falcons jumped out to an early lead when Guevara spun her defender and walked the ball in to score on the first play of the game.
It was smooth sailing from there on out, as Cerritos expanded its lead to 5-0 by the end of the first quarter courtesy of goals from Kristen Rivas, Kristina Zalewski and Tuning.
Freshman Jenel Lopez scored twice and Amber Smith added one more to make it 8-0 at the half.
The Monarchs, undermanned with only nine field players, fought hard to stay in the game, but were no match for the defending state champions going into the second half.
The third quarter saw two goals from Tuning along with one each from Ashley Arambula, Brittni Kimura, Zalewski, and Andrea Garcia, who also recorded four assists.
Cerritos ended the match by scoring another four goals in the last quarter. Guevara, Rivas and Arambula each added one more to their total, while Jessica Ku scored as well.
In a game that was less than competitive from the start, Cerritos had the familiar task of using the match to improve itself in certain areas more than score goals.
“We tried to focus on countering hard, getting into a half-court set up and feeding the ball into the center,” Macias explained.
I just remind (the team) that they’re out there to perfect their skills, and that they have to play at a high level regardless of what team they’re playing.”
Overall, Macias was happy with the overall performance of his squad, especially the second unit.
“There were some girls that got to play today that don’t usually get in as much, and they did great. The girls that played made the most of it, and that’s all I can ask of them,” he said.
Defensively, Smith, Guevara and Arambula came up with three steals apiece to help limit Trade-Tech’s offensive chances.
The Monarchs did manage to produce five shots on goal, all of which were easily handled by goalkeepers Miranda Bakke and Melissa Cedarholm.
The two combined to record the Falcons’ first shutout of the year.
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