Riverside College won its fourth California Community College State Championship in program history, and second straight, with a 6-4 victory over Golden West College in the championship final at the Cerritos College Aquatic Complex on Saturday.

Tournament MVP Andrea Antonissen led the Tigers to victory with 12 saves against an aggressive Rustlers offensive attack.

The win marked Riverside's fifth head-to-head victory over GWC this season. The only blemish on RCC's near perfect 32-1 record was a 7-6 loss at Golden West earlier this year.

RCC jumped out to a 2-0 lead with scores by Brooke Koralewski and Danni Pedroso, but a score right before the end of the first period by Golden West's Christina Navarro cut the Tigers' lead to 2-1.

Tara Scheibeler had the only goal of the second period to give RCC a 3-1 edge heading into halftime.

Koralewski and Alison Glaser added two third quarter goals to put the Tigers on top 5-1, but just when it looked like Riverside would cruise to its second straight title, the Rustlers kept fighting and rallied back with three straight scores to get back to within a goal at 5-4.

With  17 seconds to go in the third period, Navarro scored her second goal of the game to cut the deficit to 5-2. A pair of fourth quarter scores by Caitlin Gilmartin and Brooke Learmouth got GWC right back in the game trailing 5-4.

After missing on a few key scoring chances to draw even with time running down, Golden West allowed RCC's Ashley Fedler to find the back of the cage with a turnaround backhand score that gave the Tigers the insurance goal they were looking for.

With a 6-4 lead, and only 49 ticks left on the game clock, RCC was able to run out the clock and finish off a hard-fought 6-4 championship game victory.


Women's Championship Game                        1st            2nd            3rd            4th             Final

#1S Riverside  (32-1)                                        2            1            2            1            6

#2S Golden West (24-5)                                    1            0            1            2            4

 

Goals:

Riverside: Brooke Koralewski 2 Goals; Danni Pedroso, Allison Glaser, Ashley Fedler & Tara Scheibeler 1 Goal.

Golden West: Christina Navarro 2 Goals; Breanna Ritter & Caitlin Gilmartin 1 Goal.

Keeper Saves:
Riverside: Andrea Antonissen – 12 Saves.
Golden West: Taylor Morton – 11 Saves.