Hopes were high as VC faced off against a smorgasbord of women’s water polo teams in a Tournament held at the Ventura Aquatic center Oct. 8-9.
After four straight solid victories leading up to this tournament, VC looked unstoppable, opening up the first round Friday morning with a victory against Delta, 10-4 and cleaning up in the second round of the day with a victory over El Camino, 13-3.
Saturday afternoon opened with a loss for VC which put them vying for 3rd place against Fullerton; being ranked No. 5 in the state the Pirates had an uphill battle ahead of them.
Fullerton struck first 4 minutes in with two goals when VC responded with a goal coming from No. 13 freshman fielder Samantha Ebberson, Fullerton soon responded on the next play making it 3-1.
VC looked staggered and broken as Fullerton continued to pour it on, making it 5-1 at the 5:45 mark in the second quarter.
“We do so well in practice and when it comes to passing and actually doing it in the game, under pressure, it just seems to go out the window,” said goaltender Andrea Mallul on her team’s performance under pressure.
Pressure seemed relieved when No. 10 freshman fielder Vanessa Magellan’s scored VC’s second goal and Samantha Ebberson scored her second goal making it 6-3 Fullerton at the half.
After halftime VC came out ready to play and like a whole new team, scoring on their first drive thanks to Samantha Ebberson’s third goal in the game, pulling them within two. But those faint glimpses of light were soon extinguished when Fullerton went on a five goal tangent, securing the win 11-4.
Courtney Thomas had this to say about her team’s second half performance.
“In our third game we were kind of sloppy, and we kind of didn’t play as a team and then we clicked against this team (Fullerton) and towards the end it definitely was a tough team, but we definitely learned from this game and came out stronger,” said Thomas.
Mary Giles, head coach of the VC women’s water polo team felt her team had performed to the greatest of their abilities.
“The score doesn’t reflect how well we did in that game,” said Giles.
VC travels to Cuesta College Oct. 20 at San Luis Obispo for their next game. For more info on the team go to www.vcweplayhard.com.
