Orange Coast College

Women's Water Polo: Pirates hammer Cypress, 18-5

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College women's water polo team continued its strong play for the 2009 season, cruising to an 18-5 Orange Empire Conference win over visiting Cypress on Wednesday.

After a rough 2008 campaign, the Pirates have turned things around, improving to 11-4 overall and 3-0 in the always-tough OEC.

Included in those wins were a couple of statement victories over fourth-ranked Long Beach City (6-5 on Friday) and fifth-ranked Fullerton (11-9 on Saturday)

With momentum on their side, the Pirates continued that strong play into Wednesday's matchup with the Chargers, jumping out to a quick 4-0 lead just three minutes into the first quarter off of goals from Brittany Daniels, Alex Garcia and a pair of tallies from Ashley Rendon.

After Cypress found the back of the net, OCC responded once again with a pair of goals from Jamie Bee to take a 6-1 lead after the opening eight minutes.

From there, it was all Coast as a 6-0 second quarter gave the Pirates a 12-1 lead at halftime. Showing balanced offense, five different OCC players -- Garcia, Bee, Alyssa Jordan (two goals), Elizabeth Dempsy and Carly Beer found the back of the net.

Beer kept things going in the third with back-to-back goals to open the third quarter and, after a pair of Cypress goals, Coast ended the third strong with goals from Garcia and Rendon to make it 16-3.

Gabriella Zornosa and Camile Ariola capped off the scoring for Coast, while goalkeepers Cassandra Zaim and Pattie Channarong combined for five saves.

OCC returns to action on Friday at the Pasadena Tournament, which begins on Friday. The Pirates' next home contest will be on Wednesday, Oct. 21 against Fullerton at 3 p.m.