The Live Oak girls water polo team continued to play hard as the season winds to a close, with blowout wins over Mt. Pleasant and Independence and a tight contest against Gunderson.
The Acorns started out by nearly shutting out Mt. Pleasant in a 17-1 victory that saw balanced scoring across the board.
Nancy Avina and Claudia Lastra led the charge with hat tricks with four other girls scoring two goals.
Mt. Pleasant got off just six shots on goal for the day, finally scoring with 43 seconds left in the game.
“In games like this, I still want them to do those things well because when we face bigger teams, defense is key,” said coach Ronni Gautschi. “If we score one, but we stop them, we win. That’s what we focus on.”
Meanwhile, Live Oak went up 4-0 after the first quarter, then piled on seven goals in the second to take an 11-0 halftime lead.
Three more goals in the third as Lastra and Avina both filled their hats in the quarter.
Live Oak (8-1 overall) finished things off with three goals in the fourth as the Acorns started working on set plays, passing up on chances for easy goals to get the girls comfortable with running an offense.
“Our passing is atrocious, so that is something that we have been working on that. By the end of practice, their passing is much better. I think we spent 30 minutes on nothing but passing,” Gautschi said.
Gunderson
In a make up from the week of the Loma fire, Live Oak entered into a tight battle with Gunderson, but ultimately prevailed 8-6.
The two teams were tied 4-4 after the first quarter, with Lastra scoring two of her three goals for the day in the frame.
But then the defense took over.
Live Oak blanked the Grizzlies in the second and third quarters, while getting goals from Karrine Leong in the second and Taylor Bohn in the third.
Leading 6-4 in the fourth quarter, the two teams traded goals with Leong and Lastra both finding the back of the cage to preserve the win.
Independence
Live Oak followed that up with a solid win over Independence 19-6 on Tuesday.
Lastra had four goals in the first quarter, finishing with five for the day, as the Acorns jumped out to an 8-1 lead.
Live Oak led 12-3 by the half and scored four goals in the third and three more in the fourth for the win.
