The Live Oak girls varsity water polo team may have the
personnel to make a solid run in the Central Coast Section
playoffs. It definitely has the speed.
The Live Oak girls varsity water polo team may have the personnel to make a solid run in the Central Coast Section playoffs. It definitely has the speed.
“We got a good mix of older experienced players and young talented players,” said coach Bryan Traverso.” That can be a good mix sometimes.”
Ronnie Gautschi, although just a sophomore, brings experience beyond her years. She was a First Team league selection and received honorable mention on the All-CCS team last year. Although she should again be one of the top scorers in the area, there are other weapons that the Acorns can go to as well.
One of the Live Oak seniors is two-meter Chelsea Lanning, who scored 11 goals in the 19-4 win against Notre Dame of Salinas during the team’s only game of the preseason game while Gautschi was out.
“In one of our offensive setup, if Chelsea has a really tough defender on her in the hole-set, she’ll drive out, and someone else will drive in,” Traverso said. “We have a couple people off the bench that can do that too, which gives us a lot of flexibility, creating different matchups.”
Seniors Cameron Bair and Brianna Sennert also are expected to be major contributors on the team.
The four sophomores on the team – Gautschi, Breanna Sennert, Amy Marshall and Laura Melroy could all see time playing together, Traverso said.
Junior Breana Stevenson, who played on a mixed male and female team in the summer, can matchup with bigger players with her aggressiveness, Traverso said.
“We have a lot of grit, which we didn’t have last year,” Traverso said. “They aren’t afraid to get play physical with teams, whereas last year we tended to sink, and our whole game was gone.”
The Acorn defense is anchored by junior Danielle Maldonado, who was rock solid in the cage last year for Live Oak.
“Last year our defense was one of the best in the section,” Traverso said. “This year our offense has taken huge steps. We know what to do with the ball.”
This year the Acorns have been able to work on some of the finer points of the game because the team already has the basics down, Traverso said.
“We’re going to work a lot on 6-on-5s and the man-ups and downs,” Traverso said. “That has definitely been a weakness of our over the last two years. But we had so many other things to work on, that we weren’t able to focus on it. We’ve matured so much over the past couple years that now we are able to concentrate on stuff like that.”
Live Oak, Hollister and Santa Catalina will be the teams to beat this year, Traverso said.
Live Oak opens up on Sept. 9 against Monterey at 6:30 p.m. following the boys game at 5:30 p.m.
“We’re really deep this year,” Traverso said. “Especially in tournament play, that keeps the team fresh.”
“I won’t really start looking at matchups until the end of the season, Traverso added. “We have the talent to win the league and be in the top eight this year in CCS, but it is just a matter of whether or not we can put it all together.”
