Women’s Water Polo: Vikings go 1-3 at Cuesta Rabobank Invitational

The Long Beach City College women's water polo team had a tough weekend in San Luis Obispo as the Vikings went 1-3 at the 17th annual Rabobank Invitational at Cuesta College. LBCC picked up its lone win against Foothill College of Northern California but suffered losses to Golden West College, Santa Barbara City College, and host Cuesta.

The Vikings opened the tourney on Friday with a 12-5 loss to rival Golden West. The Rustlers opened with a 4-1 first-quarter lead and were up 7-3 at halftime. Sophomore Ashley Diaz (Esperanza HS) totaled four goals in the loss while sophomore McKenna Oberst (Los Alamitos HS/Concordia University-Irvine) had three goals and four assists.

LBCC bounced back that afternoon with a 14-8 win over Foothill. The Vikings held a narrow 7-5 advantage at halftime before outscoring Foothill 5-0 in the third to put the game out of reach. Sophomore Cori Reynolds (Poly HS/Long Beach State) had four goals and four assists to lead LBCC in the win. Oberst added three goals and two assists while freshman Kennedy Conroy (Millikan HS) also scored three goals.  

Saturday morning's 8-7 loss to Santa Barbara is likely the game that interim head coach David Kasa would like to forget. The Vikings dug themselves into a 5-1 hole after the first quarter and trailed 7-1 at halftime before their second half rally came up short. Long Beach outscored SBCC 6-1 over the final two quarters but it wasn't enough. Diaz scored a game-high four goals in the loss.

And LBCC closed tourney play with a 10-8 loss to Cuesta. Once again, the Vikings fell behind early only to have a second-half surge fall short. Down 5-2 after one quarter, the Vikings were within one goal at 9-8 heading into the fourth. But LBCC couldn't get the equalizer and were held scoreless in the final quarter. Diaz, Oberst, and freshman Natalie Nilan (St. Joseph HS) all scored twice for the Vikings.

For the weekend, Diaz and Oberst scored nine goals each to lead the Vikings. In goal, freshman Felicia DePalma (St. Joseph HS) totaled 13 saves.

Long Beach, now 10-5 overall, returns to action on Wednesday (Oct. 7) at 3 p.m. when the Vikings travel to Mt. San Antonio College for a South Coast Conference game.