SPORTS

4October 13, 2022 SPORTS

Editor: Hayden Kulick viewpoints.sports@gmail.com

Sports Briefs

Baseball

Pitcher David Butler committed to the University of California Irvine with a full scholarship.

Kassey Murry, an outfielder for the Tigers, was able to earn an opportunity to visit New Mexico State.

Former RCC pitcher Jesse Chavez pitched in game one of the MLB National League Divisional Series for the Atlanta Braves.

Football

Riverside City College football’s Jake Retzlaff has been named male RCC Athlete of the Month for September.

Jake Retzlaff, JJ Tucker, Reggie Retzlaff and DeMarco Moorer all received offers from New Mexico State, with Talib Salahuddin receiving an offer from San Jose State. Moorer also received an offer from the University of Hawaii.

Women’s Water Polo

Riverside City College’s women’s water polo team earned two wins at the Cuesta Tournament on Oct.1 with one win against Long Beach and one win against Modesto.

Amber Nielson was named RCC female athlete of the month for September.

Women’s Volleyball

On Friday, Sept. 30 Riverside women’s volleyball team lost a game to Cypress with a score of 0-3.

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Solid showing in San Diego

Cross-country meets expectations, places fifth

HAYDEN KULICK | VIEWPOINTS

Sophomore Raen Reyes fights through the pain on the second mile at the Manny Bautista Invitational.

PETER GIBBS STAFF REPORTER

Even with poor terrain and delays in starting on time, goals were set and accomplished.

Both the Riverside City College men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the Manny Bautista Invitational at NTC Park in San Diego Oct. 7.

With a large field of 18 teams competing, the men’s team had high expectations.

“The team has done a great job learning this season and getting better each day,” men’s head coach Jim McCarron said. “It was the deepest community college field so we set a goal of placing fifth as a team and we met that goal.”

After an airplane departed from the nearby San Diego Airport and caused a delay, it seemed that RCC would lose focus.

However, the Tigers were led by top runner Gavyn Condit, who placed fifth overall with a time of 20 minutes and 27 seconds.

“I wasn’t really affected because coach tells us to be prepared for anything,” Condit said. “I’ve learned to push through and keep going whether I have to reset or if I fall down at the start.”

Condit was joined by Kyle Reden and Ernesto Ruiz, who was competing in his first collegiate race.

Reden was able to move up through the field towards the last mile of the race to help push the team toward its goal.

“I wanted to start off a bit slower and save my energy for the rest of the race,” Reden said. “My last few races I’ve been able to use the last of my strength and catch those in front of me.” The women’s team placed eighth as early morning dew caused parts of the course to be muddy.

“I stumbled at the beginning of the race and it caused me to go out a bit faster,” sophomore runner Elani Huntley said. “There were times when I had to look down and make sure the terrain wasn’t muddy, which threw off my rhythm.”

Huntley was the teams’ top finisher, finishing in sixteenth place with a time of 20 minutes and six seconds.

Due to the conditions, the team chose to wear training shoes with better tread instead of the lighter race flats.

“Maybe I could have worn my flats,” Huntley said. “But they don’t really have much traction on them.”

The top three finishers for the women’s team were Huntley, Dakota Zamarripa and Lidia Barrios.

“This next race is what will catapult us into the playoffs,” McCarron said. “We have a really good chance of finishing on the podium at state.”

Both the men and women will be back in action for RCC on Oct. 21 in the John Elders Titan Invitational held at Cal State Fullerton.

Volleyball struggles, presses on

Team looks to change losing stigma, aims to improve in practice

DALILA ROMERO STAFF REPORTER

The Riverside City College volleyball team loses its second match in a row after being outplayed by Mt. San Antonio College.

Even though the Tigers made it close in every set, they were still defeated 3-0.

The preparation for the battle began at practice where the Tigers had to put in work to contest the Mounties who were previously undefeated conference.

“We worked a lot on our defense, blocking a lot and our blocking did come into play today,” sophomore left back Mya Castro said. “Our offense just needs to make sure we are hitting around the block, picking spots and we need to talk to our hitters.”

The Tigers were put into a rough situation after going down 2-0 in the opening sets. “It was hard when we dug a hole for ourselves because of the block,” freshman setter Audrey Elias said. “We had to dig ourselves out, which got hard towards the end.”

This game was not only a physical game for Tigers as the players had prepared mentally for the match up.

“We focused a lot on our mental game because we have all the players that we need. We just get into a mental wreck sometimes,” Elias aid. “So we just really focused on being there for each other and communicating a lot.”

The team believes that they can work on these issues in practice.

“Our biggest obstacle is definitely serve receiving, it’s something we definitely need to keep working on,” Castro said. “We just need to get it in our heads that we can pass.”

The Tigers will look to get back on the win column against Saddleback College on Oct.7.

PHOTOS BY STEPHEN DAY | VIEWPOINTS Colin Tormey fires a pass around defending Grossmont College Griffin, Austin Wenzel, during the match between the Tigers and Griffins.

Reese Starkey rises up and takes his shot during the match between the Tigers and Palomar College Comets.

Tigers go 3-1 at Riverside Tournament

JAIR RAMIREZ STAFF REPORTER

Last second heroics by sophomore attacker Louis Grandi led Riverside City College men’s water polo team to victory.

With seven seconds left in the match in the final game of the Riverside Tournament, Grandi bounced the ball past Cerritos College Falcons goalie to score the deciding goal in the 12-11 RCC victory.

“It was a game winning goal but a team win,” said Grandi. “The win was the best, not my goal.”

It was a hard fought back and forth game against Cerritos until the closing minutes of the third quarter when RCC took the lead.

Goalie Seth Zarn made a key block on a penalty shot in the closing moments of the third quarter and took an 11-8 lead going into the fourth quarter.

“It felt great, it felt like I finally did something,” Zarn said about blocking the penalty shot.

The Falcons physical style of play got them back into the game early in the fourth quarter.

Once Cerritos tied the game at 11 RCC buckled down on defense and pulled off the victory.

Zarn made many important saves to give RCC back the momentum of the game.

The Tigers’ fourth quarter meltdowns had been haunting them throughout the whole season, but they stepped it up and closed out games in the tournament to take three out of the four matches played.

“We needed to have a good tournament,” men’s water polo head coach Jason Northcott said. “We had a long stretch of playing four year schools or highly ranked community college teams and we’ve been coming out on the wrong end of it. We got three good wins in the tournament.”

“I think there’s a lot of teams we got close with,” Zarn said. “That we were just neck and neck (with) until the fourth quarter.”

The Tigers out muscled Palomar College and looked like they were on their way to an easy win in the first game of the tournament. The Comets made it close in the fourth quarter and were within one point of tying the game. The Tigers took control of the match and went on a 4-1scoring run to close out the game beating Palomar 18-14.

Long Beach City College’s speed in the pool was too much for RCC to handle in the second match. RCC ended up losing the match by four points.

The Tigers bounced back against Grossmont College on the second day of the tournament and took a commanding five to nothing lead to begin the game and never looked back. Defense was key against Grossmont and shut them out in the final quarter winning 12-8.

“Our conditioning propelled us to have a good weekend,” Northcott said. “But we need to work on our composure, learn how to control momentum.”

The Tigers feel like this tournament can be a turning point in the season and are thinking positively going forward.

“We have a result that shows that we are in the top ten in the state,” Northcott said. “We have a result that shows we belong in that area and that we can compete against the top five and we can win.”

Grandi led the way offensively and finished the tournament with 14 goals and five assists.

“I am proud of my team in this tournament, we improved a lot,” he said.

The Tigers will take a 7-14 record to the Long Beach Mini Tournament beginning Oct. 14.

Colin Tormey looks for the angle he needs to get the ball into the goal in the third match of the tournament during the match between the Tigers and Grossmont College Griffins.