Vikings look for second straight 3C2A Women's Water Polo Championship against gritty Tigers

Tournament Central l Photos

MERCED - Long Beach City rolled past Orange Coast in Friday's semifinal to advance to the final of the 3C2A Women's State Championships Saturday afternoon at Merced College. The Vikings will face Riverside City, which upended Santa Barbara City on Friday in their quest for a second consecutive state crown.

While Long Beach had its way against a solid Orange Coast squad Friday afternoon, Riverside prevailed over Santa Barbara in a hard-fought overtime battle.

Santa Barbara and Orange Coast tangle in the third-place game Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Long Beach City and Riverside City battle for the state title at 1 p.m.

Long Beach City is looking for it fifth title overall while Riverside City is looking for its sixth overall and first since 2016.

(S4) Riverside City over (S2) Santa Barbara 13-12 in OT
Santa Barbara had to endure a slow start against RCC, getting shut out by the Tigers 3-0 in the first quarter. Tiger leading scorer Yosra Elseifi had two of those goals, while fellow 100-goal scorer Angelina Beall netted the other.

The Vaqueros (33-8) didn't score until the 6:07 mark in the second. They would tally three in the quarter, but so did the Tigers (24-11). Each squad put in two in the third quarter that ended with an 8-5 RCC advantage. That's when the fireworks started.

In the fourth quarter, SBCC answered two goals from Beall and one from Presley Burrell with six explosive scores, two each from May Guidoux, Avery Jensen and Katie Strohl. After Beall scored at the 1:23 mark to give RCC an 11-10 lead, Jensen found the back of the cage with :11 left to tie it up and send it to the two three-minute overtime periods.

Isabella Stolp made it 12-11, RCC, at the end of the first OT, and Beall added a goal with 1:02 remaining for a 13-11 Tiger lead. Guidoux's goal at :42 gave the Vaqueros hope, but they were unable to convert a 7-on-6 attempt as time expired.

Beall paced the Tigers with five goals, followed by three from Elseifi and two from Burrell.

(S1) Long Beach City over (S3) Orange Coast 19-7
Hayden Clark put the Pirates on the board first, but it was all LBCC from there. The Vikings answered Clark's tally with a seven-goal tsunami, two from Irene Pueyo Caballero, that gave them a 7-1 lead just before the end of the quarter.

Five straight LBCC goals, two each from Pueyo Caballero and Jennifer Connelly, opened the second quarter. Shahar Rokach's goal with 1:22 remaining gave the Vikings a 13-3 halftime lead.

The second half was more of the same. The Vikings outscored the Pirates 6-4 in the final two quarters, highlighted by three consecutive goals from Emily Cribari. Taryn Mallon tickled the twine twice in the fourth for Coast.

Ten Vikings scored, headed by Pueyo Caballero's four, three each from Connelly and Cribari and two each from Rokach and Ada Fite Colino. Mallon and Emma Willis paced the Pirates with two goals apiece. 

(Matt Folsom, CCCSIA)