By Jimmy Friery
LONG BEACH – The Santa Barbara City College Women’s Water Polo team (30-6) punched their ticket to the 3C2A Championships on Friday thanks to an 18-4 win over Fullerton (22-15) in the SoCal Championship quarterfinal.
While there are still two more games on Saturday—a SoCal semifinal and hopefully a final, or third-place game—the Vaqueros will be one of the South’s four seeds at the eight-team state championship next weekend, hosted at Mt. San Antonio College.
They assured themselves of that with an emphatic performance on Friday afternoon. Having beaten Fullerton twice already this season—16-7 and 15-3—this eventual victory was the most dominant of the trio.
As the No. 3 seed playing the sixth-seeded Hornets, the Vaqueros took a 10-0 shutout into halftime. Julia Joseph had a hat trick by the break, and Larsen Jensen and Olivia Spieth each had two goals.
Already dispelling any question of an upset, Santa Barbara scored four more goals in each of the final two quarters. Fullerton got two on the board in each to get to the 18-4 final score.
Spieth and Luciana Grooms both ended with three goals and two assists, leading the team. Riley Granzella was great defensively, earning a team-leading four steals. Goalies Ava Barclay (five) and Riley Olney (four) each had more saves than goals allowed.
The win sets up a fourth game of the year against No. 2 Long Beach (31-5) in the Vikings’ home pool, Saturday. So far, Long Beach is leading the matchup 2-1, but it still might not be the last time the two teams face each other. The winner will face the winner of No. 1 Riverside and No. 5 Orange Coast for the SoCal Championship later on Saturday.