SAN MARCOS – The Comets offense couldn’t get it going against a highly physical Jets defense, ultimately losing their second conference game.
An aggressive opening sprint from Comets’ Ayano Tsuda and Jets’ Emma Fritz ended with the two colliding heads. If either was hurt, they did not show it as they wrestled for possession.
The Jets’ offense got hot early and scored four goals before the Comets’ Emily Freeman finally got one past the Jets’ goalie to put the home squad on the board. By the end of the first quarter, the Comets trailed 1-7.
The Comets struck first in the second quarter as Tsuda scored from the right side of the goal.
“I tried to post up for the second time after I tried it at the last game. Today, I got the shot in, and I am so glad,” Tsuda said. Before the end of the second quarter, Tsuda would go on to score again.
Defensively, the Comets improved, too, holding the Jets to only three goals, making the score 3-10 as the game headed into halftime.
The Palomar men’s water polo team supported the women from the stands and was excited to see the team’s performance improve in the second quarter.
“It looked like they changed up the defense in the second quarter. If they keep slowing down that [Jets] offense, we could see a comeback,” the men said.
Head Coach Mandy Simon was also proud of the team’s performance in the second quarter and commented on the defensive turnaround.
“This was the first game all season where we had to do a lot of adjusting during the game. And I thought they did well at that, considering we don’t really practice that,” Coach Simon said.
In the third quarter, the Comets faced a steadfast Jets defense that kept them from scoring even a single goal. The Comets allowed three, which was impressive on its own, considering their side played with the setting sun obfuscating their vision.
Down 3-13, the Comets’ chances appeared bleak. However, they played hard in the fourth quarter and scored two more times off the arm of Tessa Ferragamo. Miramar put up four of their own and defeated Palomar by a final score of 5-17.
Despite the struggles of this game, the women still had fun. Many of the players are freshmen and are still learning how to compete as a unit. This was only the third conference game of the season, leaving the team with plenty more opportunities to improve.
So far, most of the Comets’ games have been in tournaments, which do not count towards their conference record but are still crucial in strengthening the team. “As the tournaments go on and we grew as a team it became easier to bond with each other and to communicate with each other as a team,” Ferragamo said.
“I think we need to improve on finishing. In the first quarter alone, we had at least five man-up opportunities that we couldn’t score on. Those should, in theory, be easy goals, but our passes were a little too high, or our shots would hit the post. A little more accuracy, I think, would have really changed the score,” Coach Simon said.
The loss gave the Palomar Comets a conference record of 1-2. But they bounced back when they took on Crafton Hills and defeated them by a score of 13-7. Tsuda and Ferragamo scored four times, while Emily Freeman and Keyanna Mucino added three and two of their own, respectively.
The Comets look to get a win streak going as they head into the second half of the season.
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