The Live Oak girls varsity water polo team ended league play
Wednesday afternoon with an undefeated record and with an 11-5
thumping of San Benito High School.
The Live Oak girls varsity water polo team ended league play Wednesday afternoon with an undefeated record and with an 11-5 thumping of San Benito High School.
The Acorns (20-3, 7-0 TCAL) win against the Balers – who were also undefeated heading into the game – assures Live Oak of at least a co-championship in the Tri-County Athletic League.
“I was nervous,” senior Chelsea Lanning said. “But I knew we had it in us. I was really looking forward to this game”
San Benito can become co-champions if they win the league championship tournament, scheduled to start on Nov. 4. But they will most likely have to go through Live Oak to do it.
In Wednesday’s game the Acorns jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead behind sophomore Ronnie Gautschi, who scored two of the team’s four first-half goals.
When Acorns Coach Brian Traverso was forced to take out two of his star players early in the contest, San Benito started making a comeback.
“Cameron (Bair) came out and they started coming back,” he said. “ I tried to get Ronnie (Bair) out because they had two kick-outs. So we had to pick it up.”
With Live Oak’s two best players out and some strong play on defense, the Balers were able to score 2 more goals and make it 4-3 halfway through the contest.
At that point it appeared that San Benito might have worn themselves out and Traverso quickly took advantage when he saw an opportunity present itself.
“They were pretty aggressive ( on defense),” Traverso said. “You could see they were getting tired. That’s when I started doing some good subbing.”
And after that it was all Acorns. A fresh Live Oak roster added 7 second-half goals and played a strong defense that made it hard for the Balers to get shots off.
“The defense is our hall mark,” Traverso said. “It’s always been one of our strong points – we just have to get better at it.”
At that point the game was out of hand and a flustered San Benito squad started to show their frustration, holding the heads of a few of Acorns players under water and jumping all over them whenever one of them had possession of the ball.
“I was just proud of the girls that they didn’t retaliate in any way,” Traverso said. “They just kept playing their game and weren’t going to sink to their level.”
How does it feel to finish undefeated? Lanning summed it up with one word – “awesome!”
Live Oak will participate in a non-league tournament on Saturday, which will be their final warm-up before post season play Nov. 4.
