Women’s Water Polo: Vikings pick up two Day 1 wins at Battle at the Beach

The No. 2 state-ranked Long Beach City College women's water polo team earned a pair of opening-day wins at the 13th annual truWest Battle at the Beach tournament at LBCC. The Vikings began the day with a 13-6 win over Palomar and came back in the afternoon to defeat No. 9 Orange Coast by a final score of 10-7.

In the Palomar win, Long Beach stormed out to a 4-0 lead after the first quarter and was up 9-0 late in the second.

Freshman Allison Zell scored two of her game-high three goals in the first quarter while sophomore Melissa Mansana posted a pair of goals in the second in leading the Vikings to the early advantage.

Palomar's Amanda Vanderwarker finally got the Comets on the board with her goal with six seconds left in the second to make the score 9-1.

Freshmen Christine Meier and Lauren Sweet both added two goals and freshman goalie Lindsay Smith posted nine saves to lead the Vikings.

Orange Coast proved to be a bigger challenge for the Vikings. Long Beach trailed 2-1 after the first quarter before rallying to tie up the contest 3-3 before halftime.

But the Vikings took over in the third, outscoring the Pirates 4-0 during the quarter as they got goals from Sweet, Zell, and sophomores Sarah Agopian and Hollie Mickelson to jump ahead for good.

Smith posted eight saves in goal for Long Beach. Sweet, Zell, Agoapian, and Mickelson each scored a pair of goals to lead the Vikings.

The wins improved Long Beach to 19-3 overall. LBCC took first place in its round of pool play and will face Chaffey at 12:20 pm at Cypress College on Saturday (Oct. 23). The Vikings are then scheduled to play No. 1 Riverside at 3:35 pm, also at Cypress.