Things are looking good and hopes are high for this year’s girl’s water polo team as they hold a 7-1 record. Their only loss was to UC Riverside, ranked number one in the state, at the Chaffey Tournament in Los Angeles on Sept 12.

Led by Coach Janelle Odom, a water polo alumnu from UC Davis, the women’s team has high expectations for this year. Odom has been a part of Fresno City College since 2003 and coached polo in Sanger for ten years, three of which were while she started the program at FCC.

“Our main focus for this season is communication,” Odom said. “This team has a lot of talent as individuals, but needs to work together in order to know what to do as a unit.”

This year’s starting line up includes: freshman goalie Kassy Bates, sophomore center Katie Rayner, sophomore utility player Lucy Tadich, sophomore attacker Emily Ogawa, freshman utility player Erika Tasier, freshman attacker Rosy Alvarez, and sophomore defender Monica Tasier.

Compared to last year’s ten player roster, this season’s team has nineteen members. This increase has given the team depth, and they are able to rotate players more often, giving players more time to take breaks before going back in.

The team lost some players including Aly Moss, who played as an attacker and now attends Cal State Bakersfield, and Katie Santos, who served as last year’s starting goalie.

A new addition to this year’s roster is freshman attacker Amanda Kiene, from Clovis West, a leftie who hopes to give the Rams an edge. “I love the fact that I can directly help my team,” Kiene said.

“My main goal for this season is to show others that we deserve the title as number one in the north,” Odom said “Of course it would be great to win 1st in state, but we’re going to take this one step at a time.”