MISSION VIEJO, Calif. – The No. 2 Santa Barbara City College Women’s Water Polo team (7-1) went 3-1 at the two-day Saddleback Tournament this weekend.

Their most notable win came against No. 3 Riverside—an 11-10 overtime thriller. The only blip on the Vaqueros’ record was a 10-8 loss against back-to-back 3C2A Champion and current No. 1 Long Beach.

“Really proud of my girls over the weekend,” Head Coach Chuckie Roth said. “It was a competitive weekend and definitely made us better.”

It will be interesting to see how next week’s rankings shape up. All three of the top teams beat each other over the weekend. Riverside beat Long Beach 9-8, Long Beach beat Santa Barbara 10-8, and Santa Barbara beat Riverside 11-10. One thing is for certain: those three teams are in their own tier among the 3C2A Women’s Water Polo landscape.

SBCC 15, Fullerton 3

The Vaqueros made light work of their first opponents of the weekend. It was 6-0 after the first quarter against No. 10 Fullerton. The second quarter was a similar story as six different Vaqueros scored (with six different assisters) to take a 12-2 lead into the break. The result already certain, Santa Barbara wrapped it up as a 15-3 victory.

Only allowing three goals, it was the team’s lowest for a single game this season. May Guidoux swiped three steals, and both Ava Barclay and Riley Olney saved four shots.

Tessa Hidalgo had three goals, two assists, and drew three exclusions. Olivia Spieth had two goals, three assists, and two steals. Alina King had three assists and a goal, and Guidoux scored three herself.

SBCC 11, Riverside 10 (OT)

Friday’s second match was a rematch of one of last year’s State semifinals, and fittingly a No. 2 vs. No. 3 matchup this go around.

The Vaqueros led 3-2 after one, but failed to score entirely in the second quarter. After trailing 5-3 at halftime, they briefly took a 6-5 lead, but Riverside answered to send the teams to the fourth tied at six.

Pamela Hernandez scored with just over a minute left in regulation to take an 8-7 lead. However, Riverside scored on their ensuing possession to re-tie it. Overtime goals from Luciana Grooms and Spieth countered two Riverside goals before Riley Granzella won the game with her goal with 16 seconds remaining.

Spieth led the way with four goals, as did Barclay with four steals—the goalie also saved eight shots. Julia Joseph had a team-leading three assists.

“Julia was phenomenal at two-meter defense and really stepped up to big challenges,” Roth said of the freshman from South Africa. “It’ll be fun to watch her improvement throughout the season.”

Long Beach 10, SBCC 8

The schedule called for the Vaqueros to face the two teams sandwiching them in the rankings back-to-back. After No. 3 Riverside on Friday afternoon, they had No. 1 Long Beach at 8 a.m. the following morning.

Despite scoring a game-high three goals in the fourth quarter, it was not enough to see off the top-ranked Vikings—who had their two-year-long winning streak against 3C2A opponents snapped against Riverside the day prior. Thankfully, for the Vaqueros, they likely will have more opportunities against Long Beach later in the season, and maybe even the postseason.

Spieth once again had four goals, while Olney led with three steals. Hidalgo led the team with three assists, and Sophie McGehee had a team-leading three exclusions drawn.

SBCC 16, Saddleback 5

Ending the weekend against the hosts, the Vaqueros had no problem beating No. 7 Saddleback for the second straight week. It was 6-1 after the first quarter before Saddleback kept the game alive by outscoring Santa Barbara 3-2 in the second.

The Vaqueros emphatically shut the door on any comeback with a 6-0 fourth quarter, with two goals each from Sienna Barelli, Catalina Marian, and Makena Hansen. They were ruthless, only letting Saddleback’s goalie save one of their shots the entire game on the way to a 16-5 victory.

Altogether, Marian scored six goals in the game, Hansen scored five, and Barelli and Jaeda Allen scored three and two, respectively.

Santa Barbara looks ahead to next weekend’s Riverside Tournament where, thankfully, they will not have to play the hosts or Long Beach yet again. They begin the two-day, four-match weekend on Friday against Citrus at 11:30 a.m.