MJC women split in water polo, will go to state tourney

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SACRAMENTO — With a trip to the State Championship tournament on the line, Erica Crain stepped up and scored five goals to lead the Modesto Junior College women's water polo team to a 7-3 victory over Santa Rosa Junior College in the NorCal championship on Saturday.

Crain's heroics were necessary because the Lady Pirates had lost their first game of the day, 6-5 to Foothill College. Crain had scored two goals in that game and Kashi Tomicich had seven saves.

In the game for third place, MJC (19-3) also got a goal, three assists and seven steals from Meghan Devlin and 15 saves from Tomicich.

The victory sends MJC to the state championships next weekend at Golden West College in Huntington Beach.

MJC MEN'S WATER POLO — The Modesto Junior College men's water polo team lost twice — 23-6 to West Valley and 9-8 to Santa Rosa — and failed to advance to the state championships next weekend. Eric Arakelian had three goals in the loss to Santa Rosa and Nick Hester had two against West Valley. Brandon Soria made 11 saves against Santa Rosa.

MERCED WOMEN'S BASKETBALL — Fresno City College won the Lady Blue Devils basketball tournament on Saturday night, but it needed three overtimes to subdue Cypress College 118-115. All-tourney selection Cianna Ford scored 40 points for Cypress, but it wasn't enough to overcome Fresno's balance with five players in double figures. In the other games, San Jose Community College beat Merced College 75-56 for third place and Santa Rosa beat Delta College 80-74.

PACIFIC VOLLEYBALL, at Stockton — The University of the Pacific women's volleyball team swept Big West Conference leader UC Santa Barbara on Saturday night, 25-20, 25-15, 25-15. UOP is 17-10 overall and 7-8 in the Big West, while the Gauchos fell to 20-7 and 10-5. Freshman Gabby Cowden started for UOP and came up with four kills, four digs and two blocks.

PACIFIC CROSS COUNTRY — Kristina Hammarstrom of Manteca represented the University of the Pacific cross country team in the NCAA Western Regional championships, and placed 166th by finishing the six-kilometer race in 24 minutes, 23.28 seconds. Sophomore Jazmin Quiroz of San Jose was also in the race, and finished 184th.