Author: MIchael Smith
On March 20, the women’s water polo team battled for victory against two teams in the University Lancer Invitational held at California Baptist University. The Tigers faced Concordia University in the morning and Long Beach State in the afternoon.
Facing off against Concordia, the Tigers had at a 3-1 deficit after the first quarter. Things started to heat up during the third quarter when the Tigers brought the hammer down on Concordia after securing five goals, the last of which was scored by Danielle Garcia (first-year) within the last five minutes of the game.
The fourth quarter proved to be less fortuitous, as Concordia scored four goals while Oxy only scored one. Although the Tigers lost 9 -7, they played admirably. Notable performance came from Karie Nickle (junior), who pulled an offensive “hat trick” on three shots and Nanea Fujiyama (first-year), who accomplished three defensive steals.
The afternoon game against Long Beach proved to be difficult, ending in a 10-8 defeat for the tigers. With a mere five seconds left in the first quarter, Julie Monday (junior) scored the first goal of the game. The match then took a turn for the worse during the third quarter of the game; Long Beach secured five goals while Oxy scored only three. Notable performance came from Fujiyama and Monday, who both scored four goals.
“The biggest challenge was keeping up our stamina and our intensity. As a smaller numbered team, it is hard to keep game level intensity for four quarters straight,” Monday said.
In the face of defeat, the Tigers retained their sense of sportsmanship and maintained a positive attitude.
“Long Beach is a Division I program and to only lose to them by two is a great accomplishment” said Fujiyama.
Although the Tigers suffered a dual loss to Concordia and Long Beach, they regained their footing in the March 24 game against Azusa Pacific University. Having experienced a loss to Asuza earlier in the season, the women were better prepared to face their rival the second time around.
“Our first game against Azusa was our first game of the season, two weeks after training started. We were still out of conditioning and swimming shape, as well as playing with a new team . . . this time we were more conditioned, practiced more as a team and had experience,” Nickle said.
During the first quarter of the game, the Azusa Cougars were bested by two goals scored by Fujiyama, while Garcia and Tessa Bailey-Findley (sophomore) each scored one goal. At the halfway point of the game, Oxy was up 9-3. The score gap was then tightened 10-5 in the beginning of the third quarter. Nickle aided the Tigers with two goals in under 90 seconds, while the team’s goalie Rachel Adeleye (first-year), provided defensive salvation with 11 saves. In the end, the Tigers defeated the Cougars 16-11.
The Tigers may have experienced a swift win, but the game still posed many obstacles.
“One of the biggest challenges . . . was to stop [Asuza’s] two best players from shooting. In the last game, [they] scored more than half of their goals,” Nickle said. “We also needed to shut down their counter attack which we did very effectively.”
The Tigers’ efforts to trounce the competition were aided by their devout fans. “The highlight of the game was the amazing amount of fan support we had,” Adeleye said. The team’s training worked alongside the roar of the Oxy crowd to create an atmosphere of victory.
With only a five games left in the regular season, all of which are conference match-ups, the women’s water polo team currently holds an overall 8-13 record and a 2-0 conference record.
The women’s water polo next game is an away match on Saturday, April 10 at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. The team’s next home game is on April 14 against Cal Lutheran University.
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