Waiting at her position for action to come her way, she yells at her teammates and knows that she will be ready when needed.

After a missed shot by her teammates, the ball heads her way. All of her nervousness turns into energy and she becomes focused, knowing that she will have to do her job to keep her team in the game.

Watching the passing ball, Kelly Lancaster waits for it to come her way. Finally the shot comes.

Moving to her left, she blocks the shot. This is just another blocked shot for Lancaster, who did it 235 times last season, setting an EC women’s water polo record.

“It was pretty cool to break that record. When coach Corey (Stanbury) told me what I have done, I was shocked,” Lancaster said.

Last year, Lancaster’s 235 block shots was the second most blocked shots in state and broke the school’s previous record by almost 50 blocked shots.

Lancaster was a bright spot for a team last year, which had trouble winning throughout the season and finished the year with a 10-16 record.

“It was nice to know that I broke the record last year because I worked really hard and it feels good to see that it all paid off,” Lancaster said.

Stanbury was not surprised by his goalies performance last year.

“Kelly is an awesome person to coach because she is really focused at practices and games and is serious about her academics,” Stanbury said.

While it’s nice to own the school record, Lancaster said she wants to break her own record in her final year to make sure that nobody will be able to surpass her.

“It would be cool to break my own record and it is a goal of mine this year,” Lancaster said. “I have about ten games left, so I still have a chance.”

Lancaster has 133 blocked shots so far this year, but while Stanbury said it would be nice for his star goalie to set a new record, he knows that if she does, it would probably mean more losses for the team.

“Our goal as a team is to have Kelly see less shots this year,” Stanbury said. “If we can do that, then we would get better results.”

Lancaster has been playing water polo since her freshman year at Redondo Union High School, but has been swimming since the first grade and started swimming competitively in middle school

“I come from a very athletic family and I have always been involved in sports,” Lancaster said. “I love the water and enjoy the competitiveness of playing in it, whether it is swimming or playing water polo.”

In her freshman year in high school, Lancaster played in the field.

When the goalie left the team the following season, Lancaster was thrown in at goalie to fill in for the open spot.

The move turned out to be a good one for Lancaster, because she felt she wasn’t the best player on the field.

However, by becoming a goalie, she could help the team more at goal than in the field.

“I really thought I was being punished at first when they put me at goal, but as the season went on, I started realizing that I was a pretty good goalie,” Lancaster said.

After becoming a goalie, Lancaster notice the difference from changing positions and found the game a lot more easier for herself.

“I would freeze up when I played the field but when I started playing as a goalie, my confidence rose a lot,” Lancaster said. “I like the prospective from the goalie view better because I can see more of the game then my teammates and I can help them out more.”

This could be the last year of playing water polo for Lancaster, who wants to transfer to either Hawaii-Pacific or San Diego State because of her major.

“My major is sports medicine and those two schools are good for my major,” Lancaster said. “Hawaii-Pacific doesn’t have a water polo team there and San Diego State has too good of a team, so this might be my last year playing water polo.”

While she is still not sure about her water polo future, Lancaster will try to break another school record before the season ends.

“The record for most blocked penalty shots is one and I already tied it this year, so I hope I could block another to own that record, too,” Lancaster said. “It might be a small record to own, but it would be mine.”

Even though she is one of the top goalies in the state, Lancaster said she does have embarrasing moments every now and then.

“I get really embarrassed when I let an easy shot go in because some of those shots come in so slow,” Lancaster said. “I know that I’m good enough from stopping shots like that.”