Facing off against the No. 3 team in the state, the women’s water polo team fought hard showing strength on defense despite losing to the Long Beach City College Vikings 6-3.
This game displayed great promise for the women going into the conference championships and showed the rest of the league that the Warriors will not go down without a fight.
“Our defense played with a lot of teamwork against Long Beach and were the reason our team held together,” coach Corey Stanbury said.
Haley Canning led the charge on defense racking up eight steals against Long Beach’s solid offense.
As the Warriors played against the first place team in the conference, teamwork emerged as the catalyst for the Warriors and defensive contributions were made by everyone.
“Both the mens and womens team get along really well so it is easy to work as a team when we play,” field player Erica Shaw said.
Katelynn Rogers, Lisa Odland and Katelynn Sloss each had three steals during the game and Shaw added two more steals to give the Warriors a total of 18 against the Vikings.
“The women really rallied together and supported both of our water polo teams all weekend,” men’s team member Artis Coleman said.
Erin Holder had one of her best games of the season, saving 18 shots in the cage and grabbing two steals on defense against one of the best teams in the state in Long Beach.
Although EC lost, a win against Pasadena in their final game of the regular season will put the Warriors in a favorable seed going into the conference championships in November.
“We are really excited about facing Pasadena because if we win, we will have the fifth seed entering playoffs which will put us up against one of the more favorable match ups,” Stanbury said.
On offense, the Warriors will be trying to effectively rotate the ball to create opportunities for open shots.
“(Shaw) is a very effective shooter from out of the set so that is where we will try to look first of offense,” Stanbury said.
Rotation on the offensive side will create opportunities for Shaws’ position to open.
“We have to get (Shaw’s) position open so she can have the opportunity to score or we will have to kick it back out to the open player and make a good shot,” Stanbury said.
The Warrior defense is playing well, but they will face a tough test when they play against two very talented scorers on the Pasadena team.
“They will be trying to draw fouls against our defense to receive penalty shots against us,” Stanbury said.
If the Warriors can earn a victory in their final game, it will be a boost not only in playoff seeding, but also in morale going into a tough playoff schedule in the conference championships.
“Our team has rallied together in this last half of the season and gotten us in a good position to go a long way this year in the playoffs,” Stanbury said.