Fullerton, CA - For the Cypress Charger Women's Water Polo team, the only thing that was left was its teammates and the coaches. These were the only people who mattered to the players when the team met Grossmont in the first round of the SoCal Regionals. For the Sophomores, it was leaving everything in the pool and for the Freshmen, it was about help building the future of the program, for the coaches, it was guiding these players to an experience they will not soon forget. It happened just like that, a fairy tale, a script for Hollywood: an unproven Charger team received a bid to play in the Regionals after last weekend's OEC Championships. Cypress was the only sub .500 to receive a bid, just to say how highly the selection committee thought of the program. Playing against a team the Chargers already defeat 8-6 on September 28th proved to be even more challenging.
After falling behind 1-0 after the first period, Sophomore Utility Sandy Hernandez took matter in her own hands by scoring two quick goals to put Cypress up 2-1. But Grossmont with the revenge factor, dropped two unanswered goals to put the Griffins ahead 3-2 at the intermission. The Chargers came out in the second half like lightning, Hernandez' hat trick lobbed goal to tie the game and Jen Preciado found the net two minutes later to give the Chargers a 4-3 lead. Grossmont scored on a slap shot at the 5;24 mark in the 4th period to tie again and the thrill went back and forth until 25 seconds to go. Grossmont with the ball and looking for the win, but Hernandez came up with another big play by stealing the ball and charging toward the Grossmont's net and dished to Preciado who burnt the net with 7 seconds laft to put the Chargers up 5-4 and eventually the final score.
The Chargers meet top-seeded Golden West at 10:15 Friday morning in the second round.
Notes: it is the first time in the Charger Water Polo history that the team was ranked 10th and the first time that the team won a Regional game.
No comments:
Post a Comment