In their first game of the Southern California Regional Playoffs, the Cerritos College women's water polo team posted a 15-7 victory over Grossmont College Thursday night at Southwestern College. The Falcons (21-7), who are the #6-seeded team in the playoffs, will now take on #3-seed Orange Coast College (18-4) in the quarterfinals, which will take place at 6:45 p.m. tomorrow, with the entire tournament taking place at Southwestern College.

The game against the Pirates will be the second of the season between the two teams, with the Falcons coming up short in a 17-14 decision at the Cerritos Tournament back in early October.

In the win over the Griffins (16-9), it was a 6-4 Falcons lead late in the second quarter. However, goals by freshmen Miranda Alvarez (Schurr HS) and Samantha Wisher (La Serna HS), the latter with :01 second left on the clock, put the team in front 8-5 at intermission. Cerritos went on to pull away, as they accounted for seven of the nine goals scored in the second half.

Sophomore Gabriella Arenas (Montebello HS), who scored four times on the night, opened the scoring in the second half, with sophomore All-American Mia Carbajal (Schurr HS) adding to the team lead with a pair of third quarter goals. Four different players scored in the fourth quarter for Cerritos, with freshman goalkeeper Leslie Meza (California HS) picking up her second assist of the game on the team's final goal.

Carbajal led the team with five goals, which gives her one more (97) goal than she had during her freshman year. She becomes just the second player in school history to score at least 90 goals in a season both years, with Stephanie Rosero (school-record 196 career goals) the only other player to accomplish the feat. Carbajal now has 193 career goals and is four away from setting a new school record for goals in a career.

Alvarez, who had three goals, also assisted on three others, with freshman Angelina Romero (Schurr HS) dishing out a match-high four assists. Carbajal also led a defensive effort that turned in 11 steals, with a team-high four, while Meza posted 11 saves in the win.