The women’s water polo team opened its season against Rio Hondo College, which resulted in the team’s first victory, 14-6.

At halftime the women were in the lead by a score of 8-4, and then continued to succeed by adding six more goals.

Freshmen Vanessa Hinojosa led all the team with five goals.

While freshmen Mikaela Padilla had four goals as well as four steals to add to the victory.

Even with her goals and steals, Padilla did not feel she did her best, “Not that I’m not happy with that, I just feel I could do better for my team.”

She was proud of her offense or defense performance and said, “Honestly, I like the defense side because I know I could shut them down. Defense wins championships.”

The offense was not the only thing that was on fire, the defense was just as hot, sophomore goalie Amanda Rabb, had five saves in the game as well.

“Wasn’t my best game. could have done better, glad I had a good team to step it up and help me,” she said.

Even though Rabb had five saves, she was not happy with her performance either, “I could’ve had more, they’re was some goals I should have been ready for.”

Head coach Sergio Macias was happy with the way the ladies performed and progressed.

“I think we performed a lot better than this weekend (American River Tournament), we made lots of improvements. Definitely made progress from last tournament,” Macias admitted.

He added, “We want to continue to make progress and we want to limit unforced turnovers and build confidence from this weeks game.”

The team resumes play on Monday, Sept. 28 against El Camino.

Padilla states, ” [It] doesn’t really matter, as long as we play our best, no team really threatens me.”