Long Beach City rolls to fourth 3C2A Women's Water Polo Championship with victory over Santa Barbara City

LONG BEACH - Long Beach City's 4-0 third quarter carried the Vikings to an 11-6 3C2A state championship game win over Santa Barbara City Saturday afternoon at Long Beach City. The victory is the program's 4th title and first since 2006. The LBCC win ends Santa Barbara's two-year run as 3C2A champions.

The No.2-seeded Vaqueros (32-6) swam to a 2-0 lead out of the ball-drop, but the top-seeded Vikings (39-2) evened it up with an Olivia Slavens goal at 2:53 and a Gabrielle Gillott tally at :19. Santa Barbara charged back into the lead at 4-3 with back-to-back goals from Maddie Meyers but, much as they did in the first quarter, Long Beach countered with two late goals, one from Jennifer Connelly at 2:59 and another from Lola Annear at :16, to take a 5-4 lead into the break.

The Vikings all but clinched the championship by blanking the Vaqueros 4-0 in the third. Jasmine Lopez scored on LBCC's first possession, and goals from Connelly (6:25), Elizabeth Jung (5:25) and Annear (1:52) gave the Vikings what would prove to be an insurmountable 9-4 lead heading into the final eight minutes.

SBCC's Cate Daland opened the fourth with a goal to bring SBCC to within 9-5, but a stifling Viking defense and back-to-back tallies from Connelly at 1:40 and Slavens at :43 put it away.

"I couldn't ask for a better scenario with such a connected team that fought for each other all year," said winning coach Chris Oeding. "Playing at home in the state championship for the first time in over 20 years made it incredibly special. I couldn't be prouder of these girls."

Annear and Connelly paced the LBCC scorebook with three goals apiece, followed by two from Slavens and one each from Gillott, Jung and Lopez. Meyers led the Vaquero offense with two goals, while Jada Ashen, Jaeda Crabtree, Daland and Sofia Perez had one each.

Third place game: S3 Riverside City over N1 West Valley 19-18 (2OT)

In easily the tournament's most entertaining contest, Riverside City erased a one-goal deficit after the first overtime to edge West Valley 19-18 in a double-overtime third-place barnburner. The Tigers (31-5) had to rally from four goals down in the first quarter and a two-goal hole in the fourth to overcome the Vikings (24-9).

West Valley's Bella Raynes was incendiary in the opening half, lighting up the scoreboard with seven goals, including three straight in the first and all four WVC tallies in the second. The Tigers, however, countered with seven of their own in the second period to erase a 5-3 WVC first quarter lead and take a 10-9 advantage at halftime.

RCC focused on shutting down Raynes in the second half and kept her from scoring the last two quarters. While Marte Skibba took up the scoring slack for WVC a pair of WVC third-period goals to help the Vikings to a 12-10 lead, Riverside's Yosra Elseifi caught fire with two goals to

knot it up at 12-12. A Skibba power-play goal at :12 gave WVC a 13-12 advantage heading into the final eight minutes of regulation.

Skibba scored on WVC's first possession of the fourth to put West Valley up 14-12, but three straight Tigers goals, two from Clare Baty and one from Abigail Ruiz, vaulted RCC into a 15-14 lead with 3:40 to go. Anastasija Koreni got the equalizer at 2:13 and Sophia Orlandi Lazzarini gave WVC a 16-15 lead with 1:42 left. Riverside's Presley Burrell sent it to overtime with a huge score at 1:05.

Presley Burrell put RCC up 17-16 in the first OT, but goals from Ava Grays and Skibba helped the Vikings to an 18-17 advantage after the one overtime period. WVC would not find the back of the cage again. Nicole Robertson opened the second three-minute overtime with her third goal of the game and then Elseifi added an insurance tally at 1:14.

Elseifi finished with a team-high six goals. Followed by Baty's four and three each from Robertson and Ruiz. Presley Burrell scored twice, while sister Chandler added one. Sofia Mather had a brilliant game between the pipes with ten saves. Besides Raynes' seven goals, Skibba finished with four, followed by three from Orlandi Lazzarini and one each from Grays, Koreni and Mia Sickler-Lopez. Keeper Kayla Tweed ended a stellar postseason with eight saves.

(Matt Folsom, CCCWPCA)