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sports:
men's water polo
Polo prepares
with scrimmage
By Ben Dimapindan
On-line Forty-Niner
The Long Beach
State men's water polo team hosted a three-team scrimmage
Sunday at the Los Alamitos Naval Base, showcasing its offensive
versatility and defensive quickness against USC and UC Irvine.
The purpose of
the preseason scrimmages is for the coaches and players to
gauge the team's performance before heading into Mountain
Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) action. Therefore, rather
than keeping score, the coaches focus on evaluating the level
of play, according to Head Coach Ricardo Azevedo.
For LBSU, the offensive
power was generated from familiar sources.
"Offensively, we
did very well," Azevedo said. "[Senior Chris] Segesman
and [sophomore Nathan] Allard did extremely well, and the
other players complemented their effort. I'm very pleased
with what I saw."
Also, senior Justin
Jewell, who had the team's second-highest scoring total last
season, and junior Aaron Holloway, who scored 29 goals last
year, were major contributors during the scrimmages, according
to Azevedo.
In a dominant performance
against UCI, the only problem the 49ers encountered was maintaining
the high degree of intensity throughout the duration of the
scrimmage.
"We made some mistakes,"
Azevedo said. "We got too excited because we were controlling
the tempo, and then got complacent, which allowed [the other
teams] to get back into the flow of the game."
During the game
against USC, who was ranked No. 2 nationally in last season's
final poll, The Beach held its ground and used its solid defense
to neutralize the Trojans' offensive attack.
"We were satisfied
with how we matched up with USC," Segesman said. "We
showed a really strong defense, and we were especially satisfied
with the back half of our team played. It was an overall good
day."
With the entire
team -- starters and reserves -- playing well against tough
competition, the men's water polo team heads into the regular
season with optimism, knowing only minor problems need to
be fixed after Sunday's scrimmages.
"Overall, I think
we just need to work on our communication," Segesman
said. "On offense, we have to work on how to attack certain
defenses. But if you compare us to last year's scrimmages,
we played 100 times better this year."
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