Women’s Water Polo: Vikings split four games at TruWest Battle at the Beach tournament

The Long Beach City College women's water polo team picked up two wins out of four games over the weekend (Oct. 23-24) at the 18th annual TruWest Battle at Beach tournament. The Long Beach-hosted event expanded to 24 teams from across the state this year with 48 games played at LBCC, Cypress College, and Cerritos College.

Long Beach opened its weekend with a 16-8 win over Cuesta College at Cypress. The victory avenged an earlier-season loss to the Cougars. Sophomore Makenna Oberst (Los Alamitos HS/Concordia University-Irvine) exploded for five goals to lead the Vikings. Freshman Natalie Nilan (St. Joseph HS) was one of four Vikings to score twice. She also added a team-best four assists and four steals.

The Vikings closed out play on Friday with a narrow 10-9 loss to one of the top teams from Northern California, San Joaquin Delta College. Delta entered the weekend with the most wins among Northern California colleges.

LBCC's slide continued with a 10-5 loss to rival Golden West. In their last meeting, the Vikings shocked the Rustlers in their home pool before GWC got revenge on Saturday in Cerritos. Sophomore Ashley Diaz (Esperanza HS) led LBCC with a goal and five steals. In goal, freshman Felicia De Palma (St. Joseph HS) totaled eight saves.

But Long Beach got back on track with a 13-4 win over Santa Barbara City College in the seventh-place game to close out the tournament. Oberst once again led with five goals while fellow sophomore Cori Reynolds (Poly HS/Long Beach State) scored three goals to go with two steals and an assist. De Palma played well in goal with seven saves.

Long Beach, now 16-9 overall, returns to South Coast Conference action on Wednesday (Oct. 28) when the Vikings play their final home game at 3 p.m. against El Camino College.