Lompoc Girls Return to the Pool

The Lompoc Girls Water Polo program began their comeback on Wednesday. The small squad opened their season with a JV match at the COLAC. The team is helmed by Head Coach Lynette Martin and assistant Taylor Emory.

Girls Water Polo

Junior Varsity
Santa Maria 13, Lompoc 5
[SM: 3,4,1,5 - 13  L: 0,0,4,1 - 5]
The 9 member strong Lompoc team faced off against a Santa Maria team made up of the JV and some varsity bench-warmers. It wasn't the greatest game ever played, but considering the circumstances it was a very respectable re-start for a program that some had given up for dead. The Braves had some difficulty with the Santa Maria starters, but they played fairly even with the reserves, even though they only 1 substitute available, and the Saints brought 21 players. Santa Maria had several 'line-changes' during the contest, prompting Head Coach Lynette Martin to tell her girls- "Hey, you played three teams out there today."

Coach Martin talks to the team during a time out.

The Saints got going when Shara Natividad netted the 1st of her 3 goals 4:40 left in the initial period. Taylor Shoaf followed 36 seconds later with the first of her 4 goals, and Natividad finished the 1st quarter scoring with her second goal with about 3 minutes remaining.

Santa Maria scored twice more in the first 1:32 of the second, including Shoaf's 2nd, but was mostly held in check until the end of the period, getting goals with 2:02 and 0:14 left on the clock. Four Saints scored in the quarter.

The Braves made their hay in the 3rd. After surrendering a goal to fall behind 8-0, freshman Daxhia Fabela put the Braves on the board for the first time this season with a nice shot off the counter. Lompoc then took advantage of Santa Maria's replacement of all their field players to score 3 more- posting 4 goals in a row.

The Braves surge was fueled by good defense and several steals, leading to more counter-attack scores. Senior Cristina Macias had two of them in under a minute and junior Stephanie Bobadilla tossed one in with 71 seconds left. In addition to the goals, the Braves forced several saves by Saints goaltender Savannah Milne and had a shot ricochet off the crossbar just before the end of the period.

Cristina Macias becomes the Braves Season leader in goals scored.

Unfortunately, that would be Lompoc's (ahem) high-water mark. The teams traded goals to start the 4th, with senior Lucy Young scoring for the Braves, but Santa Maria hit 4 goals in the final 4:11 to close out the game.

Coach Martin was proud of the group effort, especially "considering that they played the entire game with one sub.", liked the leadership shown by team captains Bobadilla and Young, and also appreciated the "strong" play of Cristina Macias.

Braves [0-1,0-1LPL]: Goals - Cristina Macias 2, Daxhia Fabela, Stephanie Bobadilla, Lucy Young. Goaltending - Maria Costanza played entire game and had a few saves.
Saints : Goals - Taylor Shoaf 4, Shara Natividad 3, Cindy Montanado 2, Adrianna Foster, Cali Hernandez, Selena Alvarado, Casandra Cadena. Goaltenders (c. 5 saves)  - Cindy Montanado (1st Half), Savannah Milne (3rd Q), Jenae Tell (4th Q).

The Braves will play the rest of the season as a JV team, and are in action each of the next three Wednesdays. They are also an alternate team for the Cabrillo JV tournament this weekend.

The Team: #1 Maria Caranza (Jr), #2 Mariela Barajas (Sr), #3 Lucy Young (Sr), #4 Luisa Hernandez (Jr), #5 Cristina Macias (Sr), #7 Angelica Vargas (Jr), #13 Daxhia Fabela (Fr), #14 Anali Cardoza (Fr), #18 Stephanie Bobadilla (Jr).