OCC Women's Water Polo Claims SoCal Championship

LONG BEACH -- This historic 2022 season for the Orange Coast College women's water polo program continues to add chapters to the book as the Pirates topped Long Beach City and Santa Barbara to win the 2022 Southern California Regional Women's Water Polo championship on Friday and Saturday at Long Beach City College.

OCC's stellar performance not only gave the Pirates the regional title, it also pushed the Pirates (27-4) into the No. 1 seed out of Southern California as they now head to Southwestern College for the California Community College Athletic Association State Championships, which kick off on Friday against San Joaquin Delta, beginning at 1 p.m. In the other matchup, it will be the North's No. 1 seed -- West Valley College -- taking on Santa Barbara City on Friday at 10:30 a.m. The winner of both matchups will play for the state title on Saturday at SWC, beginning at 12 p.m.

Coast punched its ticket to Chula Vista with its 10-7 victory over the host LBCC Vikings, giving the Pirates their first trip to the State Finals since 2005.

In the championship match against the top-seeded Vaqueros (29-6), it was SBCC who jumped out to an early 3-0 lead before Coast regrouped from a scoreless opening quarter and scored four of the next five goals to even things at 4 through two quarters of play. Jillian Duwe sparked the comeback with three straight goals, while Destiny Hernandez tossed in the fourth with just 3 seconds left in the first half to tie things up and give OCC momentum heading into the third.

That momentum DID carry over as the Pirates found a pair of quick goals from Ana Nardelli to grab a 6-4 lead over the Vaqueros. SBCC would respond with a late rally and even the score at 7 with just one quarter left to play.

SBCC scored first in the fourth to grab an 8-7 advantage but the Pirates would respond, ripping off three straight goals from Nardelli, Hernandez and Duwe to pull ahead 10-8 with just under 4 minutes remaining.

That's where sophomore goalie Annabelle Sherman stepped up and kept OCC in the lead the rest of the way. She had one of her best contests of the season at the perfect time, coming through with 18 big saves to help preserve the win.

"Our team played really well over the weekend," OCC head coach Dan Matulis said. "We have been preparing for regionals since last year when we came up just short of qualifying for state. To qualify this season meant so much to our program and I'm so happy our returners were able to see their hard work pay off. Our athletes have committed to communicating well and working together as a cohesive unit on defense and it really paid off in the championship game."

Release by Tony Altobelli