CC Flaherty
Staff Writer
The women’s water polo team struggled to keep up with Pomona-Pitzer on Wednesday at the La Verne Aquatic Center, which led them to a 24-7 loss. There were over 50 Leopards fans cheering them on.
This was the Leopards’ last conference regular season game.
The Leopards had a slow start and struggled to come back, but that didn’t stop them from executing their game plan on offense and defense. Graduate student center Olivia Taylor, junior attackers Brooklyn Young and Maddie Grove and senior defender Brianna Zapata were the main scorers for the Leopards and were able to break through the e defense.
“Going up against a power house, making sure we give the best effort and making sure we’re not coming out of this game with injuries,” head coach Robert Echeverria said. “We were trying to build momentum for that play in the game so I think that was the main goal.”
In the first quarter, the Sagehens were indeed a power house that jumped on the Leopards from the start with four goals in the first five minutes. The Leopards eventually got a breakthrough with a goal from Young, off an assist from Zapata.
“A personal goal was to just have fun because we knew it was going to be a tough game. I think going into it we didn’t really have anything to lose so we just kind of had a more chill mindset.” Young said.
In the second quarter the Sagehens dominated again, scoring two more goals in the first three minutes. With the Leopards frustrated, they responded with good communication and ball movement, which led to Grove’s solid goal.
The Sagehens’ communication and consistency frustrated the Leopards, causing them to turn over the ball and get penalties called against them. With those calls, the Sagehens found ways to score.
“I would say honestly I was very calm because there’s not much expectations because we’re still in fifth right now. I cared but I just wasn’t as nervous or anxious,” Grove said. “As a team we were just ready to do the best we could, you know because we were the underdog and see what we can do but playing hard was it.”
In the third quarter, the Leopards were down 13-2 and the Saghens were giving them trouble on both offense and defense. The Sagehens were moving fast and aggressively to the ball beating the Leopards there. The Leopards kept a good mentality and responded with a goal from Grove again.
“We need to build rhythm and momentum going into our next game. I need everyone to want the ball.” Echeverria said.
Going into the fourth quarter, the Leopards were still down, 20-3, and the Sagehens scored four more goals. The Leopards took what Echeverria said and kept pushing all together as they responded with four goals for themselves. In the end, La Verne couldn’t break through the power house Pomona-Pitzer team.
“Definitely should have been a better game than it was, but a lot of it was from a slow start which made it more competent,” Taylor said. “For our next game we need to win so we’re going to play hard and aggressively come in strong.”
The Leopards’ record is 8-15 overall and 7-5 in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
The team will be on the road next to continue on for the postseason Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament play where they will be competing in a play-in game. That game will take place at Cal Lutheran with the date, time and opponent to be determined on Tuesday.
CC Flaherty can be reached at catherine.flaherty@laverne.edu.
CC Flaherty is a staff photographer for the Campus Times and La Verne Magazine, and a junior communications major with a concentration in public relations. She is also a broadcast announcer for La Verne Athletics and has previously been a staff writer for the Campus Times.
Christen Ziska is a staff photographer for the Campus Times and La Verne Magazine. She is a junior communications major with a concentration in public relations. She plans to become a social media coordinator for an NBA team.
