No. 1 Long Beach Women's Water Polo Crowned SoCal Regional Champions

From the 3C2A:

No. 1 Long Beach City topples No. 3 Santa Barbara City to win SoCal banner

COSTA MESA - Top-seeded Long Beach City stopped two-time defending state champion Santa Barbara City 13-7 to capture the 3C2A SoCal Regional championship Saturday at Orange Coast College. The region's top four seeds – No. 1 Long Beach City, No. 2 Riverside City, No. 3 Santa Barbara City and No. 4 Saddleback - all advance to next weekend's 3C2A Women's State Championship, hosted by Long Beach City.

The top-seeded Vikings (35-2) proved to the rest of Southern California why that seeding was appropriate, using an overpowering second half to run over the Vaqueros (29-6) in the championship. With Long Beach holding a 6-5 edge after three, the Vikings scored seven in the final eight minutes to pull away. Olivia Slavens led the way for LBCC with four goals, while Jennifer Connelly and Mar Bernal each added three. Keeper Coryn Cavecche came up big in the final period, holding the Vaqueros to just two goals, while totaling 10 saves. For the Vaqueros, Cate Daland was the lone multi-goal scorer with two, while five other SBCC players found the back of the net once. Kate Densmore had 11 saves in goal for Santa Barbara.

In Saturday's 3rd-place contest, an Orange Empire Conference rematch, Riverside City (19-7) used a strong first half and never lost the lead to Saddleback (20-12) for a 13-8 win. The Tigers held an 8-3 advantage at the half before the Bobcats pulled to within three after three quarters. But Nicole Robertson's four goals and three each from Chandler Burrell and Abigail Ruiz helped the Tigers maintain their advantage all the way to the final horn. Hollis Munchoff led Saddleback with three goals in the loss.

Semifinals:

Long Beach 13, Saddleback 4 – A 6-0 run for the Vikings proved to be too much to overcome for the Bobcats as LBCC advanced to the finals with a convincing win. Olivia Slavens led the way with four goals, while Jennifer Connelly and Mar Bernal each tossed in three. Avery Reyes turned away seven Bobcat shots to pick up the win in the cage.

Santa Barbara 8, Riverside 7 – The two-time defending state champs, seeded third, were pushed to the limit in their semifinal tilt with the 2nd-seeded Tigers, but a late pair of goals helped the Vaqueros advance to the title game. Addie Lane had three goals for SBCC, while Lily Carrick and Jada Ashen each scored twice. Kate Densmore picked up six saves in the win. Nicole Robertson, Yosra Elseifi and Clare Baty each had two goals for RCC, while Sofia Mather came up strong with 10 saves.

(Tony Altobelli, Orange Coast College, and Matt Folsom, CCCWPCA)