No. 1 ranked LBCC women’s water polo team defeated the No. 4 ranked Merced Blue Devils 13-3 Thursday morning in the first round of the 3C2A state championships.
Sophomore Olivia Slavens led the team with 5 goals, 4 steals, and 1 assist while Lola Annear contributed 4 goals of her own, 1 steal, and 1 crucial block to keep the Blue Devils from scoring.
The reigning South Coast Conference Champions put on an impressive defensive performance, keeping Merced scoreless in the second period and only allowing three goals.
Avery Reyes and Avery White each had 4 steals while Jennifer Connelly added two of her own.
Head Coach Chris Oeding detailed the Vikings’ strategy going into the game, especially since the Vikings never got to play Merced in the regular season.
“Merced’s a dangerous team. They’ve got a lot of weapons offensively and so we were trying to focus on our defense and just trying to get stops to be able to give ourselves the opportunity to not be perfect on offense and still have the chance to win the game,” said Oeding.
He also said it can be a challenge to prepare to play a team you haven’t faced yet but he trusts his team to play their own game and learn as they go.
“We try to play as many teams across the state as possible during the year but there are teams we don’t see. I was telling our team keeping our main thing the main thing and doing what we do and having them just have the flexibility of learning throughout the game and kinda gathering what (the other team’s) tendencies are and what schemes they tend to run and just make adjustments throughout the game,” said Oeding.
While the Vikings are no stranger to the 3C2A state championship tournament, this is the first year that it has been hosted at the newly renovated Aquatics Center on the LBCC campus.
“It’s exciting, the energy is really good and having our family and friends here is nice. It’s nice to have that home town support,” sophomore Olivia Hurley said.
Freshman Maya Lopez said that while hosting the championship is an advantage it does also make the ordeal a little more anxiety inducing.
“It’s cool being here and it’s cool seeing the team give it their all. We definitely keep on pushing each other and reminding each other that being nervous is a good thing and that we should channel it and bring it on against the teams that are trying to bring it on against us,” Lopez said.
The Vikings will next be taking on Riverside College Friday at 10:30 a.m. The winner will move on to the third round of the 3C2A state championships and be one step closer to the championship title.