Ohlone sports: Men's Water Polo Reaching New Heights

It’s been a head-turning season at the Ohlone College pool as both the Renegades men’s and women’s water polo teams are churning toward their goals.

The Renegades men dropped a 12-11 heartbreaker against San Joaquin Delta in sudden-death overtime on Friday in the West Valley tournament, but the big picture remains bright.

Ohlone has qualified for the Northern California Championships reportedly for the first time in 17 years.

"Extremely exciting for the program and our student athletes,” Ohlone men’s coach Mitchell Youhanna says proudly. “They’ve worked extremely hard and it’s a testament to their character and work ethic to have competed this season with just an eight-man roster.”

Youhanna added that his players are driven by a “love of the game. I truly believe that’s what their biggest motivating factor is this year. All these guys love the game.”

Ohlone’s men’s team will compete in the conference tournament as the No. 3 seed versus an opponent to be determined at 9 a.m. on Friday. Ohlone's dedicated eight-man squad is composed of Isaiah Meza, Xander Pereira, Craig Harkey, Jeffrey Jones, Aiden McBride, Evan Farley, James Larson, and Nathan Clark.

WOMEN’S WATER POLO
The Renegades completed conference play with a 22-3 rout of Laney. The No. 4 seeded Renegades have a play-in game Wednesday against No. 5 Foothill on Wednesday at Ohlone. The game starts at 3 p.m.
WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL

The Renegades dropped a competitive 3-0 match to Foothill 25-20, 25-18, 25-20. Ohlone coach Jeremy Penaflor gave full credit to Foothill for "putting together a solid, consistent match. I think from the onset they had our number."

Penaflor added that his team made too many "communication errors in all facets of the game, and those started to pile up and the confidence started to go down."
Ohlone played without sophomore libero Malia Silva, who has been out with a hamstring strain, and backup freshman setter/DS Raychelle-Rebosura-Castillo, who had flu-like symptoms.
Penaflor says he has confidence in "all our players that are stepping up for our lost ones. I would just like to see their confidence in themselves grow. If it does we can 'right the ship' here and get back to our competitive selves, which we'll need as we face De Anza on Tuesday.

MEN’S SOCCER
The Renegades rallied from a 3-0 deficit against Gavilan, but came up short in a 3-2 defeat. Ohlone roared back into the game on goals by Gerardo Vazquez and Joseph Paredes. Bryan Diaz had an assist.
WOMEN’S SOCCER
The Renegades were rewarded for all their hard work with a 2-1 win over Cabrillo on Oct. 23 as Francesca Viale scored the winner in the 75th minute off Krysten Baumann assist. Viale has two goals and an assist this season
Jasmine Pacheco gave the Renegades a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute off a Mariah Finnigan assist, but Cabrillo equalized in the 72nd minute on an unassisted strike by Graciela Mares.
Ohlone keeper Laticia Romero made two saves.