Experience and team unity are the women’s water polo team’s strongest features coming into this season.

Their first game will be against Los Angeles Valley today, at LA Valley at 4 p.m. The team will go on to compete in the EC tournament on Saturday, September 13, at 1 p.m.

“Our women’s team is going to be a lot stronger than last year. We have returned our best players and added several that are as good substitutes we can throw in; it’s going to be good,” Corey Stanbury, water polo coach, said.

According to the players, many have returned for their second season and there are fewer new players as compared to last year.

“Last year, including myself, there were three girls who had never played. But now, everybody has at least a season of water polo except for one,” Lisa Odland, 19, said.

Returning players include Kathryn Thebodeau, last season’s leading scorer, and Jordyn Greene, a goalie with eight years of water polo under her belt.

Incoming players will also be a valuable addition to the team, including Haley Canning, a club player from Peninsula High School, Erica Shaw, and Katelynn Sloss, both players from Redondo Union High School.

Stanbury is not worried about their first game against L.A. Valley whom they beat at least four times last year.

“If they’re even remotely like they were last year, it’s not even going to be a contest,” Stanbury said.

Some players have not yet begun to count L.A. Valley out.

“We have a better team then they did last year, but we have no idea what they have and there are rumors that they picked up players from other schools,” Greene said.

Stanbury has been preparing his players for the long season ahead with a strict conditioning schedule.

“I have them going in the morning for an hour and in that time we are swimming at least a mile and a half and in the afternoons we got 45 minutes plus for conditioning on top of the other stuff we do,” Stanbury said.

Players have been somewhat struggling with the new schedule but realize they have to come out strong for their first game.

“Practices are going really well. Conditioning is really hard because all of us are really out of shape, but I think the team is going to be really good,” Odland said.