The Santa Ana College (SAC) women's water polo team kicked off the 2011 season at the Cypress Tournament held at Cypress College.
The Dons took on conference foe, and tournament host, Cypress College in their first match. The two teams played a hard fought first period with the host Chargers clinging to a 2-1 lead after the Dons Sabina Ochoa opened the scoring in the game.
Cypress extended its lead at the half to 7-4 after outscoring the Dons 5-3 in the second frame. Nikole Facklam notched a pair of goals for the Dons with Meagan Thomas scoring the other goal of the period.
However, the Dons short bench was outmatched in the second half as the Chargers outscored the Dons 10-1 with the lone goal for SAC coming from Facklam. With the second half burst, Cypress took the match by a final score of 17-5.
Thomas and Shelby Johnson split time in goal for the Dons with Thomas making three saves while Johnson turned away two shots. Facklam's three goals led the Dons in scoring.
GAME TWO
The Dons returned to the pool just a few hours later to take on Ventura College. The Dons fell behind quickly as the Pirates jumped out to an 8-0 lead after the first period.
SAC rebounded in the second period as the Dons paced Ventura with each team scoring two goals apiece. Johnson scored the first goal for the Dons followed by Ivette Cervantes.
The Pirates managed another offensive surge in the third period to take a 17-3 lead going into the final frame. The Dons once again bounced back, holding Ventura to just two goals in the fourth quarter while scoring a goal of their own.
The Dons two second half goals came from Ochoa in the third and Daneyra Ortega in the fourth. However, the Dons would go down 19-4 to open the season 0-2.
Thomas and Johnson once again split time between the pipes with Thomas making six saves and Johnson another two.