Although the women’s water polo team started out the conference tournament strong with a win of 18-8 against Rio Hondo, it was unable to defeat Chaffey and Pasadena City College.
“We beat Rio Hondo, and that was a very good victory because the last time we played them we only won by three points and we were struggling. This time, there was no struggle, our defense was very good, and offensively we were firing very well,” coach Corey Stanbury said.
One player, Katelynn Sloss, broke a school record for the most assists in one game.
“I think almost every member on the team scored in that game,” Stanbury said.
Chaffey defeated the Warriors with a score of 5-9 and Pasadena City College defeated them with a score of 5-6.
“Chaffey is a lot stronger of a team than we are and they actually ranked in the state championships and are playing in the playoffs. We felt pretty good about ourselves because we held them scoreless for a quarter and a half,” Stanbury said.
Stanbury said that the team did not have the firepower it needed offensively to score more than Chaffey did. Still, he added, being able to keep them out of the goal for that long was good.
“(The Chaffey players) were getting kind of flustered actually and towards the end of the game, we did get some scores in on them,” Stanbury said.
Stanbury said that he was excited about the way the team played defense.
“The game on Saturday was exceptionally important because it was the final game of the season and it was against Pasadena, a team we played two times prior,” player Tara Yeno said.
“When we played Pasadena before, we lost 8-2 and then again 5-2, so our defense was getting better,” Stanbury said.
Stanbury said that because of how the tournaments played out, it was likely that the team would have to play Pasadena at the end of the season.
“So we spent two weeks devising a plan to play then and it worked on them. It was pretty effective, almost perfectly effective. That was why we only lost by one point,” Stanbury said.
Stanbury said that at one point in the first quarter, the Warriors were the first one to score, and that they were ahead. But then Pasadena came back to tie and went on to get ahead of the Warriors.
EC’s players, however, kept it a close game.
“With about a minute to go, somebody from Pasadena threw up a shot. It hit the bar and bounced in. That’s how close the game was; if it had been about one inch farther away, it would not have gone in,” Stanbury said.
Yeno said that even though it was a loss, the game against Pasadena was the best game played all season. The team’s defense was strong and the Warriors took as many shots as possible.
Stanbury said that the team developed greatly throughout this season.
He added that the levels of play that some of the team’s strongest players got to was really incredible.
“They showed some great knowledge of the game and anticipation of what kind of things are likely to happen. They demonstrated a very advanced understanding of the game,” Stanbury said.
Stanbury said that even some of the beginning players, including some that have never played before, learned a lot.
“They were able to play in the rhythm or what we were trying to do, and did a great job,” Stanbury said.
All in all, the coach was very proud of how the team worked as unit and ended the season.
“My hopes for next season is that we could find maybe eight to ten more players, and that we will be as good or better than we were this year,” Stanbury said. “We have some big shoes to replace.”