The Pacific Coast Athletic Conference men’s and women’s water polo championship tournament took place last weekend at Southwestern College’s aquatics complex. Grossmont College teams advanced to both gender finals with the top-seeded men’s team taking first place with a 12-10 win over second-seeded Palomar and the second-seeded women’s team placing runner-up to top-seeded Miramar via a 9-6 setback.
Both championship games were spirited affairs, with berths in the Southern California regional playoffs at stake for the champion.
Both top-seeded teams won to keep their seasons afloat. The next rung up the playoff ladder is this weekend at Orange Coast College. The state championship tournament is Nov. 21-23 at Long Beach City College.
Grossmont College finished 2-0 at this year’s tournament. The Griffins (22-9) defeated fourth-seeded Southwestern, 25-9, in last Friday’s semifinals before en¬gaging the Comets in Saturday’s championship game.
The conference championship is the Griffins third in four years.
“We have a good mix of freshmen and sophomores … our soph¬omore class is strong,” Grossmont head coach Ty Lackey said. “It’s come along really well. We set a goal to win our conference and make a run at regionals.”
Scores were close throughout the tournament. Palomar defeated third-seeded San Diego Mesa, 11-5, in last Friday’s semifinals.
Mesa edged Southwestern, 12- 10, in Saturday’s third place game. while Palomar edged Crafton Hills, 9-8, in the women’s bronze medal game.
Sophomore Jake Simpson (Grossmont Foothillers) scored four goals in the championship game. Freshman Miles Boone (Valhalla) scored three goals while freshman Xylen Rotsart (Helix) tallied twice. Sophomores Lucas Draper (Patrick Henry) and Raul Rico (Hilltop) each had one goal.
Freshman Esequiel Antunez (Helix) braced the champions in the cage.
Rotsart (96 goals) is the team’s goal-scoring leader while Simpson (84 goals) is second on the list. Freshman Ryan Motta (Grossmont Foothillers) paces the team with 60 assists. Draper and sophomore Dustin Walter (Ramona) are tied for the team lead with 34 steals.
The teams went goal-for-goal to start the championship game before Grossmont took a 5-3 lead at the end of the first quarter. Palo¬mar rallied to take an 8-6 lead midway through the second quarter. A goal by Boone pulled the Griffins to within one goal at 9-8 by the end of the third quarter.
Boone tied the game, 9-9, to open the final quarter as the regular season champions continued to build momentum to push ahead 11-9 on a pair of goals by Rotsart.
A power play goal by the Comets reduced the Grossmont lead to 11-10 with 3:55 remaining in regulation. Rico scored a huge insurance goal with 1:41 to play to put the Griffins back in front by two goals.
The game was as emotional as it was physical.
“There was lots of emotion, nerves,” Lackey said. “It was the same type of game when we played them in the regular season and went to overtime. We started out strong, kind of relaxed a little in the middle and finished strong.”
Cody Poure and Jack Fritz led the Comets with three goals each in the final.
Assistant coach David Calder, who played at Grossmont in 1984- 85, is retiring after a four-year stint with three PCAC championships. “I’m glad to have given back to the school that helped me when I was young,” he said.
Miramar, the regular season women’s champion, opened up a 5-2 lead on the Lady Griffins at halftime. A power play goal by Grossmont’s Liliana Warder reduced to Lady Jets’ lead to 5-3 but Miramar rebounded to go up 7-3 early in the final quarter.
The Lady Griffins (14-9) trailed, 8-4, with 4:55 left but scored two of the game’s final three goals to finish strong.
It marked Grossmont’s third loss to Miramar this season.
“It’s been a good season, better than last year,” Lady Grif¬fins head coach Kimmy Keach said. “We have a strong group of sophomores. We held their scoring down but we needed to score in double digits to win.”
Warder and Elizather Spiller (Helix) led Grossmont with two goals each while Makenna Rossiter (Helix) and Payge Miller (Patrick Henry) each scored once.
Miramar’s Nalani Galindo keyed all players in the pool with four goals.
PCAC Water Polo Finals
Friday, Nov. 8
WOMEN’S SEMIFINALS
(2) Grossmont 7, (3) Palomar 5
MEN’S SEMIFINALS
(1) Grossmont 25, (4) Southwestern 9
(2) Palomar 11, (3) San Diego Mesa 5
Saturday, Nov. 9
MEDAL ROUNDS
Women’s third place: (3) Palomar 9, (4) Crafton Hills 8
Men’s third place: (3) San Diego Mesa 14, (4) Southwestern 12
Women’s championship: (1) San Diego Miramar 9, (2) Grossmont 6
Men’s championship: (1) Grossmont 12, (2) Palomar 10
