On the first day of the Battle at the Beach Tournament, the Cerritos College women's water polo team had the luxury of playing both games at home. However, the Falcons (13-8) dropped a pair of close games, falling to Orange Coast College (12-9) in the morning and 8-7 to Saddleback College in the afternoon. The team will play two more games on Saturday, but will play them at Cypress College.

Cerritos vs. Orange Coast: Trailing the entire game, the Falcons continued to try and make inroads to getting even with the Pirates, but traded goals most of the second half. Late in the third quarter, Cerritos was behind, 10-4 and made a move to get to within three goals. But along the way, the team missed three great scoring chances, which would have closed the gap and put more pressure on Orange Coast. In the fourth quarter, sophomore Jenny Parra (Schurr HS) scored with 2:03 left and then with :31 seconds left to close out the scoring in the game. Parra led the team with three goals,, with freshmen Kayla Peko (La Habra HS) and Isabella Sierra (California HS) both scoring twice.

Cerritos vs. Saddleback: Looking to finish the day with a win, the Falcons held a 7-5 lead at the end of the third quarter. They had only scored three goals up until that point after taking a 4-3 advantage after the first eight minutes. The offense continued to struggle, and Cerritos was unable to add to their goal total in the fourth quarter, while the Gauchos scored three times to pull out the win. Sierra scored three times for the Falcons, while Peko assisted on three goals. Freshman goalkeeper Ivanna Tostado (Troy HS) played the entire game and registered eight saves.

Photos by Daryl Peterson