Delta women’s water polo went head-to-head with four Calif. community college teams in the two-day Delta Women’s Invitational.
The games started at 8 a.m. on Sept. 29 and continued into the afternoon of Sept. 30. The Mustangs first faced off against the Orange Coast Pirates, ending with a score of 16 to 6 in favor of the Pirates. Things looked up afterward when Delta won against the Santa Rosa Bear Cubs 11 to 6.
The next day the invitational started again at 8 a.m. when Delta played the Fullerton Hornets, losing 11 to 4. The next game was against Orange Coast again, ending with 13 points for Orange Coast and 6 for Delta. The last game of the invitational was against the Citrus College Owls, ending with a final score of 10 to 7 in favor of Citrus.
Despite only winning one of their five games, Delta remained resilient and determined in the water. While watching the game, you could observe how the team worked well together effortlessly and had trained hard to perform well on game days.
“We practice Monday through Saturday if we don’t have any games,” said freshman attacker Esmeralda De La Torre. These practices can last four hours each of the days.
On top of the work that goes into the sport in and out of the water, these women also must maintain their academic careers as student-athletes. Water polo is a difficult and tiring sport; you must maintain power and agility while in the water at all times. Endurance is a key element of the game, according to sophomore defender Kenna Dooley.
“No matter what you do, you have to keep swimming; you have to keep pushing. You have to keep pushing through, even just like things around in your life as well. Honestly, endurance is the number one thing; you just push all the time, you push yourself to new levels, and it just never stops,” said Dooley.
At the beginning of each season, the team focuses on strength training and conditioning to develop skills and muscle memory. Their focus also goes to maintaining endurance and speed while competing. As they near the middle of the season, the focus shifts more to preparing for each game individually.
“We would have a meeting and talk about their key players, how our defense matches up against their offense, and things like that. So, it’s kind of fluid, it changes throughout the season, but we’re still in that mid-season mode right now. There’s still a lot of conditioning, a lot of grinding, and a little bit of tactical
stuff,” said the team’s head coach, Nathan Varosh.
Though the physical training is important, something that can be seen as almost more important is the development of camaraderie and friendship amongst the team, as it is what keeps them motivated and determined throughout gamedays. The team spends a lot of time in the beginning of their
season developing the bonds that make the team what it is.
“They really learn how to lean on each other and rely on each other, but yeah, tons of time goes in, almost more time than training goes into it. It’s a lot, it’s a big part of our process throughout the year,” said Varosh.
Though the invitational did not go exactly according to plan, the team still has high hopes for the future and will use these losses as a way to grow and expand their skills for the rest of the season.
“We’re just going to reflect on this weekend, do a lot of analytics and film. We’re just going to try and get better every day. We are very young in the season; we’re very young as a team, so there’s a lot of… the ceiling is very high here,” said Varosh.
The Mustangs placed fourth in the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) state championships during the 2022-23 season and are hoping to get there again this year.
“I expect us to kick butt. I expect us to work super hard. We’re working really hard to get to where we want to be, which is State, and we want to be top again, top four. That’s our goal,” said sophomore attacker Kaitlynn Desimone.