Brahmas faced the Corsairs “aye-to-aye” on Wednesday afternoon as the Pierce College women’s water polo team hosted Santa Monica College.
The game was close, but ended in a 9-4 loss against SMC.
Pierce head coach Judi Terhar said that despite having a lot of new faces, she thinks they’ve been doing well.
“Of all my years of coaching, this is my absolute favorite team,” Terhar said. “We only have a few players that have played for a long time and the others are brand new. It’s very easy for the better players to be frustrated with the beginners, but all they’ve done is helped each other, encouraged each other, and I’m just so proud of that.”
The first quarter started rough, with the Corsairs utility player Precelia Acosta scoring the first goal of the game.
However, Brahmas fought back with team captain Maria Sandoghdar scoring the next goal.
Following Sandoghdar’s goal, the opposing team responded back with scoring two more goals from SMC players Alejandra Hill and Jacqueline Hernandez respectively, which left the Corsairs in the lead 3-1 in the first quarter.
Driver Mariana Villareal Guerra said she still feels like the team has been improving despite their loss.
“I think we did pretty good,” Villareal said. “We’re doing better and better every time we play, so I’m pretty happy. I’m happy to be here playing for the school.”
Assistant coach Mircea Pitariu also said that because the team is newer, every game feels like a learning experience.
“Every single game, I think of it more like lessons that we can learn and we can keep and move on to get even better in the future,” Pitariu said.
There were a handful of attempted goals by both teams in the second quarter, but only the Corsairs were successful, ending the quarter with a 4-1 lead.
The Brahmas threatened during the third quarter, with offensive player Allison Schamber scoring the team’s second goal.
The Corsairs widened their lead, with player Deisy Mozqueda successfully scoring, giving Santa Monica a 5-2 lead.
Shortly after, player Ariel Oliveau tried to keep the gap close by scoring another point for the Brahmas, but the Corsairs were unrelenting with another goal made by Victoria Gijon.
The quarter ended with SMC still in the lead.
The air was tense during the last quarter as Pierce tried to catch up with SMC. But the Corsairs continued to score three more times putting them at a 9-3 lead.
The Brahmas showed resilience though, with Sandoghdar upping their score.
No other goals were scored for the rest of the game, and Pierce ended up losing 9-4.
This was the Brahmas’ first home game in almost two years at the Steven E. Schofield Aquatic Center.
Terhar said that COVID-19 has been tough and that it changed the perspective for some of the players.
“It was very hard on the team as a whole to have spent a year and a half without being in the water,” Terhar said. “I think people have learned that no one wants to live sitting in a room by themselves without human interaction. The lessons that we’ve learned are just to be grateful for everything, including being grateful that we have a team.”
The Brahmas will be facing the Monarchs at Los Angeles Valley College on Oct. 27 at 4:30 p.m.
