Women’s water polo took a 11-10 loss against Biola University despite Vikings attacker Irene Pueyo Caballero scoring four goals in a friendly tournament on Nov. 1.
The Vikings started the first two quarters slowly as they went down 10-3 at the end of the first half.
“It was a flip from our last game in which we started winning 2-8 but this time we were on the opposite side,” Vikings Water Polo Head Coach Chris Oeding said
During the third quarter, the Vikings pulled all the defensive stops to get closer in the game, making it 10-9 by the end of it.
“I think they recognized at that point, they can’t play for themselves, they need to play for each other. I saw them come together a lot more in the second half and work with each other, which opened more opportunities for us,” Oeding said.
During the fourth quarter, the teams were battling out of a tie 10-10.
When both teams could not find a way to get ahead, Biola University attacker Gwendolyn Pidd scored the winning goal that came in the form of a penalty in the last two minutes of the game.
LBCC’ attacker Irene Pueyo Caballero had the highest goal tally of the game with four goals
“At the end we are a team, the best part of this team is that we all support each other, even the players who didn’t play still contribute to the team, and at the end it was the optimism and the mentality of the that kept us fighting for the game, even with a loss as the result we are still very happy we our performance as a team,” Caballero said.
Vikings center Emily Cribari and attacker Shahar Rokach scored two goals each to show for their good performance during the game.
“I think our intensity really changed because we started bringing each other up and cheering very loudly for each other,” Cribari said.
The Vikings will play their next match on Thursday at Merced College for the first round of the 3C2A State Championship Tournament at 3:30 p.m. against Diablo Valley College.
