Water polo team begins next semester

Calvin Alagot calagot.roundupnews@gmail.com

Pierce College’s Athletic department will include a women’s water polo team this coming fall and is looking for members.

The team will be coached by 2008 Olympic water polo silver medalist, Moriah VanNorman, who graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a Master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).

While at USC, VanNorman was awarded the Peter J. Cutino award in 2004 after leading the team to win the NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championship.

After retiring from the sport in 2009, VanNorman worked at Los Angeles Trade Tech and Valley College for a couple of years before coming to Pierce. The team was formed in compliance with Title IX regulations which states that there has to be an equal amount of sports teams offered for men and women, according to Judi Terhar, head coach of the women’s swim team.

Athletic Director Bob Lofrano initiated the women’s water polo team to complement the women’s swimming and diving team, after they won the 2011 Western State Conference Championship.

“We have about eight players so far,” VanNorman said.

Funding for the new water polo team comes from the existing funds the athelethic department already has according to Pierce College President Kathleen Burke-Kelly “I lived in Greece and played professionally for a year,” VanNorman said. “Our team won the European Championship.”

Volleyball team snaps three-game losing streak

Brittany Blust bblust.roundupnews@gmail.com

The Brahmas’ baseball team rallied for eight runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to cut distance but the damage was done as they drop a thriller to College of the Canyons Saturday.

Pierce College fell to the Cougars on eleven innings by a final score of 24-19.

The game lasted almost five hours and saw what was an improbable comeback by the Brahmas.

Down 18-8 in the bottom of the eighth, substitute Christian Tobias hit a leadoff double to start the rally.

The Brahmas went on to score eight runs bringing the score to 18-16 in favor of the Cougars, and putting them within reach of a win on their home field.

“We just needed to start small and get base runners on, and that’s all I was trying to do, “ Tobias said.

The heart of the lineup was up in the bottom of the ninth starting with infielder Nick Murphy who hit a double to start the inning.

Brahmas’ first baseman and cleanup hitter Nick Schmidt lined a triple out to right center field bringing home both Murphy and left fielder

Cody DeSpain.

The team looked poised to win the game after being down by 10 just an inning before with a runner on third and no outs.

“The team stayed poised even though it look like we were about to lose,” said Cougars head coach Bill Picketts.

“Especially Young with those plays at third.”

Pierce hitters hit three straight ground ball outs to Cougars third baseman Ryan Young and they managed to get out of the ninth with a tie game.

After both teams scored one run each in the first extra inning, the Brahmas sent out left-hander Max Mackey.

Mackey had a rough outing as the Cougars put together a five-run inning and the Brahmas were finally

“I’ve never seen a game like this,” said head coach John Bushart. “We’ve got some players on this team that have big hearts, we grew up a lot this week.”

The pitching staff felt the brunt of the defensive woes as the Brahmas went through every pitcher they had available for the game.

“We used every single one of them and it still wasn’t enough,” said coach Bushart. “If there was a 12-year-old sitting in the stands who could pitch, I would’ve played him.”

Pierce will visit Citrus College Thursday, March 15 at 2:30 p.m. and Bakersfield College Saturday, March 17 at 6 p.m.

Great athletic defensive skills to be the key for the Pierce College men’s volleyball team against Santa Barbara Friday.

The Vaqueros were defeated 25-23, 25-23, 25-20 in a Western State Conference Southern Division showdown.

“Whenever we were able to push the setter off the net and give our block a chance, we get a lot of blocks,” Pierce hitter Alex Jones said.

After losing to Long Beach March 7 the men’s volleyball team was ready for a win.

“We were really excited, we had just come off a loss and were really excited to play Santa Barbara,” Brahmas’ player Daniel Williams said. “We had a really good game, we were having fun.”

The Vaqueros came out playing well in the beginning of the match but the Brahmas’ blocking and strong defense won the game.

“When we block well we can push a lot of points,” Jones said. ”That’s our biggest strength, blocking and defense, our biggest weakness is siding-out.”

The Brahmas’ attribute their win to their team moral, practicing, and their technical blocking skills.

“It was fun we got some really great plays from John Griffin our outside hitter, and great passing from our libero,” said Brahma Daniel Williams.

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