Men’s Water Polo: Vikings advance to state championships after second-place SoCal 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. 19) 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 is being hosted by American River College in Sacramento.

Under coaches Chris Oeding and Dave Kasa, the Long Beach men are making their eighth trip to the state tournament in 10 years. LBCC looks to capture its first state title since 2006.

Long Beach (21-8 overall), the South's No. 2 seed, faces the North's top seed West Valley College (18-1) in a battle of Vikings in Friday's 12 p.m. semifinal game. South No. 1 Golden West plays North No. 2 Diablo Valley at 4 p.m. in the other semifinal. The winners advance to the state championship final on Saturday at 3 p.m. The losers will play in the third-place game on Saturday at 11 a.m.

LBCC and West Valley met once early this season. On Septmber 17, West Valley edged Long Beach 13-11 at the Cuesta College tournament. Long Beach is 1-2 this season against Golden West and defeated Diablo Valley 13-6 in their lone meeting this season.

Long Beach earned its trip to the state championships thanks to a second-place finish at the Southern California Championships last week at Cuesta College.

No. 3-seed LBCC opened play Friday with a 7-4 win over No. 7 Fullerton. Then on Saturday, the Vikings upset No. 2-seed Cuesta 10-6.

Cuesta took a 3-2 lead after the first quarter, but the second quarter was all Vikings as they outscored the Cougars 5-1 and took a commanding 7-4 lead into the intermission. Cuesta was never able to close the gap and Long Beach advanced to the finals. Seven different Vikings scored in the win, with freshman Tristan Winterhalter leading the way with four goals.

No. 1 Golden West came out in top in the SoCal final, beating LBCC 13-12. The Rustlers jumped out early to a 4-1 advantage in the first quarter, but the Vikings reeled them in to close the gap to 6-5 at the half.  The two teams traded goals until Golden West's Miso Halac scored his team-high fourth goal with eight seconds left to give the Rustlers an insurmountable 13-11 lead.  Winterhalter netted a half-court goal at the buzzer to shrink the final score and tally his game-high fifth goal for the Vikings.

Winterhalter led Long Beach with nine goals over three games at the regionals. Goalie Vince Ward totaled 17 saves over the three games.