With the third-place finish Mt. SAC received a No. 5 seed in the Southern California Regional Championships and will play No. 4 seed Riverside City College on Friday at 3:15 p.m. The So Cal's will be held at Golden West College in Huntington Beach.
"Our conference is very tough as evidenced by the fact that we have three of the top five seeds in So Cal's," Mt. SAC Water Polo coach Marc Ruh said. "That speaks highly of our conference strength."
Mt. SAC, which is 19-7 on the season, did not face RCC (18-9) in the regular season.
"We will have a very tough game against No. 4 RCC," Ruh added. "We have only seen them at the beginning of the year in a scrimmage. They were very tough then and we are sure they have improved a great deal since then as well.
"We will have to make sure we are prepared for a very physical, fast-paced game."
RCC lost in the Orange Empire Council championship game to Golden West.
In the third place victory over Rio Hondo, sophomore Scott McDill led all scorers with eight goals and freshman attacker Alec Rivera had five.
With his eight goals, McDill takes over the number one spot in the state with 139 goals.
Also scoring for the Mounties were three players with three each – sophomore Thomas Randles, sophomore Renin Devito and freshman Roman Aceres.
With the win, sophomore goalie Andres Jaramillo picked up his 19th of the season, which is tops in the state. Jaramillo made 12 saves in the game, bringing his season total to 312, which is good for fourth in the state.
In the game the Mounties jumped out to 9-0 lead in the second period and the defense didn't allow a Roadrunner goal until the 5:11 mark of the second.
They built up a 12-2 lead at the half and outscored Rio Hondo, 15-4, in the second half.
The Mounties had 30 steals in the game with sophomore Hans Masten leading the way with five.
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For additional information, please contact the Mt. SAC Sports Information Office at 909.274.4630