Women’s water polo season is off to a splashing start. The Mustangs won 8-3 against the Merced Blue Devils on Sept. 11 at the Fergusson Pool.
“We love it. But there is always opportunity to grow,” said sophomore utility Ally Ratto about the team’s win.
Delta started the game off sprinting towards mid-pool to gain control of the ball, and quickly attempted to make a goal. However, the Mustangs did not prevail after eight shot attempts and possession of the ball, allowing the Blue Devils to score on freshman goalie Kylie Richardson making the score 2-0 Merced.
Freshman attacker Sami Scheid said that after the Blue Devils scored, the Mustangs knew they were “a good team and that we have all these qualities that will help us in the long run… we got more energy and intensity and we just started pushing the ball and passing it wherever we saw it open. But we didn’t want to force it, it was just whatever we saw that would be a good opportunity to take.”
By the second quarter the Mustangs had more drive, as they pushed Merced hard resulting in a penalty shot for Delta and immediately after a second shot scored by sophomore attacker Esmeralda De La Torre. This started a rally of points ending the second quarter 4-2 Delta.
Ratto said that this game the Mustangs set a higher standard for themselves, after losing to the Lassen Cougars earlier in the day, and wanted to continue that effort throughout their second game to win.
“Going into the mentality in the second game of let’s compete. Let’s not go down to whatever level they’re playing at, but let’s go at our level and what we play at and what we know what to do,” said Ratto.
The Mustangs made another goal by the third quarter and used the remaining time to block Merceds shot attempts, however the Blue Devils scored one more time before the time ran out, ending the quarter 5-3.
Delta emerged from the third quarter ready to solidify their win with three more goals made by De La Torre, freshman attacker Lauryn Lucero and freshman defender Shelby Richardson closing out the game 8-3 Delta.
Head coach Nathan Varosh said about his team’s win, that the team has a lot to work on but they plan on winning the state championship at the end of the season after coming off of their third place overall in the Big 8 conference.
“Win the state championship. Absolutely. All or nothing. We got to continue the work trajectory that we’ve been putting in, we got to continue to grow as a unit. And we need a little magic, but I got a good feeling we’ve got some magic on our side this year,” said Varosh.
