USC
beats The Beach again
By Daniel Frias
On-line Forty-Niner
The
No.4 ranked (11-4) Long Beach State women’s
water polo team had a rough time this past
weekend as they settled for fourth place
in the UC Santa Barbara Gaucho Invitational
tournament. The 49ers put up a valiant effort
at this two-day tournament, but couldn’t
get the job done losing two games to Stanford
and USC.
The 49ers opened the tournament with wins
against Pacific and Cal on Saturday. Saturday
against Pacific the 49ers took a 3-1 lead
in the first quarter, but Pacific tied the
score in the second. The 49ers then added
another goal to take back the lead and put
the game away scoring six goals in the last
two quarters to defeat the Tigers 10-5.
Freshman Alison Braden and junior Angelica
Garcia scored three goals a piece, sophomore
Roberta Stewart contributed two goals to
the win and freshman Tara Campbell and sophomore
Drue Wawrzynski each added one goal in the
effort.
The 49ers continued right where they left
off as they defeated the No.5 ranked Cal
Bears 9-7 in their second game of the afternoon.
Wawrzynski had the hot hand in this game,
scoring three goals to lead her team to
victory. Stewart also scored a hat trick
with three goals in the game as well.
Long Beach native Cassie Azevedo put in
two goals and Garcia put one in the cage
to give the 49ers their second win of the
tournament.
The second day of the tournament did not
go well for the 49ers. The 49ers took a
2-0 lead in the game against No.1 Stanford
when 49er leading scorer sophomore Roberta
Stewart scored the only 49er goals of the
game in the second period. Stanford answered
with a goal of their own in the same quarter
and then scored two more in the third to
take a 3-2 lead. The Cardinal scored again
in the fourth to win the defensively played
game 4-2.
The 49ers second game of the day wasn’t
any easier as LBSU took on the Trojans of
USC, a team they had lost to earlier in
the season. The Trojans again defeated the
Beach this time by the score of 11-5.
Richardson and Stewart each had a pair of
goals and Campbell added another to keep
the 49ers close, but the Trojans offense
was consistent through every quarter, scoring
two goals in the first, second and fourth
periods while netting five goals in the
third to secure the win.
The 49ers walked away from the UCSB tournament
with a fourth place finish but still hold
an impressive overall record of 11-4 and
a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference
record of 3-1.
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