TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1999

Garcia leads barrage against Roadrunners

By Tyler Hemstreet

On-Line Forty-Niner

The game plan was simple - defense turns into offense.

This mentality helped the Long Beach State women's water polo team earn their first win of the season.

The Beach overwhelmed the visiting Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners 16-5 on Friday at the Campus Pool.

The sixteen goal outpouring broke the old mark of 10 goals set last season versus Loyola Marymount.

The run-and-gun style of play generated a plethora of scoring opportunities for the 49ers, and they did not disappoint.

Driver Elizabeth Garcia lead the 16 goal barrage on the Roadrunners with four goals. Juniors Nadine Akers and Morgan Meyer also contributed to the win with three goals each.

Bakersfield was kept out of the net by the spectacular play of goalie Rebecca Levine. She finished with eight saves in her three quarters of play.

Coach Sandy Vessey-Scheider said she wanted to use the defensive pressure to force the Roadrunners to make poor decisions on offense.

"Our defense played tight, so that if there was any possibility of a turnover, our offense was taking off. We have been working on our counter attack very heavily this last week. We have a fast team and with the type of defense we play, we plan on being a counter attack team."

Vessey-Scheider also said the game was a good warm-up for the season.

"Definitely all of the other teams that we are going to see this season are going to be stronger, we have a tough conference. This game was a good way to iron out the kinks, but we still have a few things that we have to work on."

The 49ers will be in action this weekend as they compete at the UC San Diego Tournament in La Jolla on Feb. 26-28.