It’s a good time to be a fan of water polo as the Southern California regionals are here at Long Beach City College.
Both men’s and women’s water polo are playing in the tournament which started yesterday and runs until tomorrow. The regional championship is the last step on the path to the coveted state title.
Roughly 150 people were in attendance yesterday, and they were sure to make lots of noise for their teams as they competed. During the critical moments of the matches, the crowd went from cheering and clapping to roaring and stomping in the bleachers, an energy that was maintained throughout the day.
LBCC did not play yesterday and will play its first two games of the tournament today.
LBCC is entering the tournament as the #3 seed with a 19-10 record for the women, and a 19-8 record for the men, with both having just won the South Coast Conference Championship on Saturday. This marked the seventh straight conference championship for the women’s team.
The women’s team plays at noon against Golden West College, who beat Palomar 7-6 in a grueling duel that came down to the last second. GWC and LBCC women’s water polo have yet to play each other this season.
LBCC’s men’s water polo is set to play #2 seed Orange Coast College at 5:45 p.m. in the last game of the day. The last time the two schools played, OCC made up for their first loss to make this season’s record against each other 1-1.
#8 Mt. San Antonio College started the day off playing against #9 Ventura, and beat them 13-12 in a high stakes shootout. Mt. SAC will play Santa Barbara Community College today at 9 a.m.
Riverside Community College and Cuesta competed next with RCC winning in an 18-8 landslide. The win brings RCC’s record to 21-8 and means they’ll play Fullteron at 10:15 a.m. today.
The next game was between #7 Saddleback and #10 Cypress which ended in Saddleback winning 16-6. Saddleback is slated to play OCC at 11:30 a.m. today
Lastly, for the women’s games was #6 Golden West College vs. #11 Palomar. The match was fought tooth and nail as a goal from Palmor forced a timeout with 20 seconds left.
GWC tried to run off the clock in the back of the pool but was met with such a forceful defense that they lost possession. The ball landed by the goal as a mad dash to recover it ensued.
Palamore tried to tap the ball in the few inches needed with two seconds left, however they couldn’t keep their hands on the ball to push it into the goal and with that the match ended in an uproar.
With that, the women were done and it was the men’s turn to show everyone what they could do.
Before the women could even exit the pool the men of #8 Cerritos City College and #9 Mt. SAC dove into the pool to start warming up for their match.
Their match got off to an extremely slow start with very few goals or shots in the first half. The second half however was the polar opposite with lightning fast plays and constant communication to move the ball into a scoring position.
For most of the game they stayed within a single point of each other. It wasn’t until Cerritos ran the play clock down to one second and scored a goal to take a 9-7 lead with 47 seconds remaining in the game.
Throughout the entire play coach Joe Abing was yelling “No shot!” at his team as the crowd started stomping in the bleachers.
This play and the brief defense that followed sealed the victory for Cerritos who had been struggling to catch a break in large events and title games since the end of September.
Cerritos will play the #1 seed GWC who is heavily favored to win having won the state championship from 2016 to 2019. The match will be at 2 p.m. today.
Yesterday’s final game was #7 RCC vs. #10 Grossmont, where the two were more focused on taking shots than defending their goals. The final score was a 12-8 win for RCC, who faked out Grossmont goalie Eric Bates almost every time they scored. RCC will play #2 Cuesta in the last game today at 4:30 p.m.