Men's Water Polo: Long Beach earns spot at state championships after second-place SoCal Regionals finish

The Long Beach City College men's water polo team will continue its quest for the program's ninth state championship beginning Friday (Nov. 18) when the Vikings face West Valley College in the semifinals of the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Water Polo State Championships. The two-day tournament will be played at nearby Cerritos College.

Under coaches Chris Oeding and Dave Kasa, the Long Beach men are making their ninth trip to the state tournament in 11 years. LBCC looks to capture its first state title since 2006.

Long Beach (26-3 overall), the South's No. 2 seed, faces the North's top seed West Valley College (22-11) in a battle of Vikings in Friday's 10:30 am semifinal game. South No. 1 Golden West plays North No. 2 Diablo Valley at 1 pm in the other semifinal. The winners advance to the state championship final on Saturday at 12:30 pm, while the losers will play in the third-place game on Saturday at 9 am.

Friday will mark the first meeting of 2011 between LBCC and West Valley. Long Beach is 1-2 this season against Golden West and lost to Diablo Valley 14-12 in their lone meeting this season.

Long Beach opened up the 2010 state championships against West Valley and lost to the eventual state champions by a final score of 13-6. The Vikings went on to defeat Diablo Valley 15-11 to capture the third-place trophy.

Long Beach earned its trip to the state championships thanks to a second-place finish at the Southern California Regional Championships this past weekend at Riverside City College.

The Vikings rolled to an 11-8 win over Cerritos College to open the SoCal Regionals on Friday. LBCC led 6-4 at halftime and held off a late Cerritos rally for the win. Dor Apffel and Nemanja Jokanovic both scored three goals to lead the Vikings.

LBCC continued its run with a 12-9 win over Cuesta College in semifinals. Long Beach trailed 6-5 at halftime but stormed ahead with four goals in the third quarter and outscored Cuesta 7-1 in the second half before Cuesta managed two last-minute goals. Chase McColl led the Vikings with five goals and goalie Vince Ward had 10 saves.

In the SoCal Final, the Vikings came up on the unlucky end of a 9-8 overtime loss to Golden West. Long Beach came out firing and held a 4-1 in the first quarter before the Rustlers answered with three straight goals.

With the score 6-6 at halftime, the remainder of the contest was a defensive battle. Both teams managed just one goal each in the third and fourth quarters. But Golden West's Marko Madaras' goal early in the first overtime period proved to be the game-winner.

Jokanovic and McColl led the Vikings with two goals in the SoCal Final loss while Ward had five saves.

Photo: The Vikings pose with their second-place regionals trophy in Riverside