SCC Women's Soccer Showing Balance In Early '19 Non-Conference Play

It's only been a few weeks into the 2019 California Community College women's soccer season, but a few South Coast Conference teams have made sudden rebounds from last year while its best team from a season ago had a rare setback. 

Cerritos College saw a 24-game undefeated streak (23-0-1) going back to 2017 snapped in a 4-0 loss to Lake Tahoe. The Falcons are 2-1 and were rated #4 in the initial CCCSIA (sports information directors) Women's Soccer Top 20 Soccer Poll. North region Lake Tahoe, a nationally rated team last year and this year, was #3. Nia Thompson and Lucia Yanez each have three goals to pace Cerritos.

Believe it or not the next highest ranked team at #15 from the SCC was Pasadena City, a program that won just once last season. After scoring only 13 goals all year in 18 matches, the Lancers are suddenly a scoring machine in '19 with 24 goals and a 4-0 record going into Sept. 13 competition. Leading the resurgence is current state-leading scorer Katy Coats, who has a remarkable 13 goals and four assists with three hat tricks while Kaily Echeverria has also scored a goal in all four of the team's games with six on the year.

Rio Hondo was the only other SCC team to make it on the initial poll at #19 and is 2-0-2 thus far. The Roadrunners feature a very tough defensive unit, allowing only one goal in its four games. Goalie Anaguisel Ramos has three straight shutouts, including seven saves in a win over Clovis. Rio Hondo was a #7 seed in last year's SoCal Playoffs.

LA Harbor won seven games last season, but is off to a sparkling 3-0 start. Mt. San Antonio, directed this year by its successful men's soccer coach Juan Sanchez, is 3-1-1 and has four goals already by Liani Sanchez. 

Compton, a team that won only three contests in 2018, is already showing improvement at 2-1-1 while Long Beach City (1-1) has always been a highly-competitive program. 

With Chaffey, last year's North Division champion, realigned to the newly-formed Inland Empire Athletic Conference, the SCC is back to being one 9-team conference.

While Cerritos is again expected to be the favorite to win the title, the jockeying among teams and the potential success of the squads could result in more playoff teams. This year, the title will come down to an 8-game, round-robin conference schedule that begins October 18.