GLENDORA, CA – The Santa Barbara City College Women's Water Polo team won the 3C2A Southern California Regionals this weekend at Citrus College, with wins over San Diego Miramar, Long Beach, and Riverside. The #1 Vaqueros improve to 34-1 (unbeaten against 3C2A opponents) heading into the State Championships next weekend in Marin.
The SoCal Quarterfinal game was on Friday against 9-seed Miramar, and the Vaqueros took care of business. The win clinched a spot in the expanded State Championships next weekend. However, the match did not begin in a typical SBCC way.
After a somewhat sluggish first half, the Vaqueros could not pull away. Eventually, they found themselves with just a 7-5 lead with three minutes left in the third period. SBCC would suddenly step on the gas, though, scoring 3 goals—with 2 assists from Maddie Myers—in the last two minutes or so to take a 10-5 lead into the fourth quarter. Miramar would score on their first possession of the fourth, but the Vaqueros would then score 4 unanswered goals to win 14-6.
Although the final score is somewhat misleading, the robust Vaqueros still outscored Miramar in every quarter despite not playing their best water polo.
Natalie Mancinelli and Addie Lane each had 3 goals with Esther Sullivan, Cate Daland, and Maddie Myers all netting 2. Lane's 3 goals put her total on the season at 60, currently second on the team behind just Claire Daland who has 68. Myers had the aforementioned 2 assists, with Lane also dishing 2. Lily Carrick led the team with 3, also reaching the 60-mark in assists.
Defensively, Claire Daland was dominant with 7 steals and 3 exclusions drawn. Addie Lane was all over the pool with 5 steals, too, and Lily Carrick swiped 4 steals.
The win set the Vaqueros up for a semifinal matchup against Long Beach early on Saturday. In a rematch of a close 11-8 Vaqueros win at the end of September, SBCC once again came out on top in this one.
Long Beach scored one minute into the first and second quarters each, but those 2 goals would be the only the Vaqueros would allow in the first half. The Vaqueros offense took a little while to get going, with Lily Carrick opening the scoring at the tail end of the first quarter. SBCC took a 4-2 lead into halftime.
Both teams traded goals out of the break to an 8-5 score, but SBCC would shut out Long Beach in the fourth frame while scoring 3, settling at an 11-5 win.
"That was our best defensive game of the year," head coach Chuckie Roth said. "Phenomenal job of team defense."
This time, it was Caroline Oates' turn to have a 7-steal game, but like Roth mentioned, she was not the only Vaquero with a stellar defensive match. 10 Vaqueros had at least 1 steal, with Claire Daland (4) and Addie Lane (3) also standing out on the statsheet. Kate Densmore saved 7 shots while allowing just 5 goals, her second game on the weekend with more saves than goals allowed.
"It's all a process," Roth said of SBCC's offense taking until the second half to really get going. "Our process requires a lot of energy, and [our players] always play hard."
"It took us a second to get into the game—the biggest thing we try to enforce is positivity," Claire Daland added.
Daland's positive mentality and talent helped her to score 2 goals, tying Natalie Mancinelli and Maddie Myers for the team lead in the game. Lily Carrick was 1 assist shy of her season high, totaling 5.
After the semifinal win, the Vaqueros were set up to play the winner of 2-seed Riverside or 3-seed Saddleback for the 3C2A SoCal Regionals Championship. Either way, it would be the fourth time the Vaqueros would play whichever team would come out with the win.
Riverside prevailed, and it set up another #1 vs #2-ranked teams in the state matchup. Santa Barbara had previously won all three, 11-10, 10-7, and 7-5. Those losses were Riverside's only of the season.
Round four, the Final, began with the Vaqueros having short-lived 2-0 and 3-1 leads in the first period, only to finish the period 3-3 after 2 late Riverside goals.
Cate Daland scored on the first possession of the second quarter, but Riverside again answered with a goal less than a minute later. However, the Vaqueros were not going to tolerate another slow first half offensively and scored a total of 6 goals in the second frame. The heater gave them a whopping 9 goals by halftime, holding a 9-5 lead.
After a Riverside goal less than a minute after halftime made the score a more competitive 9-6, the Vaqueros would go on a 7-2 run over the next 10 minutes of play.
Gabrielle Muehring scored twice in two minutes at the end of the third period, and the Daland sisters combined for 3 goals in two minutes at the beginning of the fourth. Taking a 13-8 lead into the fourth quarter that ballooned into a 16-8 lead, the Vaqueros cruised to a 16-10 Southern California Regionals Final victory.
The 34th win of the season eclipses the 2016 total for most in a single season in SBCC history.
"Super proud of my team tonight," Roth said proudly. "We found ourselves in foul trouble at the end of the first period, but our girls improved as the game went on."
Maddie Myers concluded her phenomenal weekend with a 2-goal, 1-assist, 4-steal performance in the Final. Lily Carrick had a similar 1-goal, 2-assist, 4-steal performance. Carrick is paramount to the Vaqueros offense, averaging exactly 2 assists per game, with 68 in 34 games. She also has the team lead in steals on the season with 79 and is fourth in goals with 42.
The goalscoring was dominated by the Daland sisters—with Claire and Cate each netting 4—and Gabrielle Muehring, who scored 3.
Natalie Mancinelli, Addie Lane, Gabrielle Muehring, and Caroline Oates all added 2 steals.
The Vaqueros won the Regional for the second time in the last three years, but have their sights set on a bigger trophy, a State Championship. Next weekend, the Vaqueros look to defend their status as reigning state champions, with a shot at being the first repeat champions since Golden West a decade ago in 2012-13. It would be SBCC's third state title in program history, dating 9 years.
Not only that, but the Vaqueros are chasing excellence—winning the State Championship would mean a perfect season against 3C2A opponents, with their only loss against Division-I Cal State Northridge. It would be the first perfect—or 1-loss, for that matter—season since Fullerton went 35-0 in 2014, SBCC's inaugural year as a program.
The presumable 1-seeded Vaqueros await a bracket announcement to find out who they play Thursday in the State Quarterfinal in Marin.
Jimmy Friery, SBCC Athletics
