By Valeria Mejia @VALMEJIAA
The Las Positas College women’s water polo team placed third in the West Valley Tournament on Saturday Sept. 17. They won two out of their four games, and beat the former Conference Champions Foothill College in their second game of the tournament.
Head coach, Trevor Rose, prepared his team with well thought out practices and positive attitudes for this tournament. His team put in an all out effort despite the obstacles they faced.
Friday the ladies won both matches. It was 6-2 over Sacramento City College and a close 4-3 win over Foothill College.
Charissa Taylor scored twice for the hawks and had four steals against Sac City. Elizabeth Bukus, Rachel Henke and Rachel Will scored a goal apiece. Jamie Roeder scored one goal and had one assist and Madison Suoja had one assist and three steals to contribute in the first game of the tournament. Goalie Bailey Beanland had nine saves.
In the second game against Foothill College, Souja had one goal and two assists, Makinna Newkirk had one goal and Bukus had two goals. Taylor and Roeder combined for five steals as the hawks came away with the 4-3 win. Beanland came up with another nine saves in the match.
Saturday the team did not fare as well, losing 2-5 against Cuesta College and 5-9 against Santa Rosa College. Jessica Byng, Amaya Batiza had the only goals in the loss against Cuesta and were assisted by Newkirk and Rachel Will. Beanland had 12 saves but it wasn’t enough.
In their loss to Santa Rosa, goal scorers included: Taylor with three, Batiza, one and Roeder with two. Beanland had three saves.
The hawks missed a few of their starters on Saturday due to personal reasons but Rose was proud of his team.
“We lost the two games on Saturday which was a bummer but we finished out third,” he said.
Rachel Hanke, first year player, was very excited and proud of her new team and teammates.
“I think we played well as a team and connected more,” she said. We functioned great and it definitely wasn’t a single person effort it was everyone working together.”
When asked if the team did anything in particular to prepare for the tournament Rose didn’t feel they had done anything differently but felt that they have a good mix with the returning players and the incoming players.“I think the girls that returned from last year understand the system better, and the girls that joined us this year jumped right in,” he said.
The lady hawks are big on working together to make the team play better. The wins against Sacramento and Foothill College were all a team effort. Rose sees this as a way for the team to get closer and connect more with each other.
“It’s nice when you have a group of kids that want to play, that buy into the system, and enjoy each other’s company,” he said. It’s hard to say what we can do individually at the beginning of the year but it’s nice to see us actually play as a unit and act like a team.”