A visit this weekend to California—for matches Friday and Saturday in opposition to 4 opponents—will present LIU’s ladies’s water polo crew essential suggestions in its quest for the 2022 Metro Atlantic Athletic Convention (MAAC) title and a visit to this system’s first-ever NCAA event.
If their current effort in opposition to High-25 opponents #19 Princeton and #20 Harvard is any indication, the Sharks, ranked #22 on this week’s Collegiate Water Polo Affiliation ballot, possess ample expertise and need. As LIU Head Coach Gabby Juarez sees it, the wins will come… in time.
“This can be a good studying second for us, early within the season,” she mentioned. “We nonetheless have time to develop and regulate”
Juarez, getting into her fourth 12 months with this system she launched, lauded her crew’s effort whereas preaching endurance after powerful losses to the Tigers and the Crimson on the Princeton Invitational.
“It’s a very good for us to know that once we’re down, we are able to pull out a fourth quarter tie.” Juarez mentioned after her crew rallied late from a three-goal deficit at Princeton earlier this month. “We play with a whole lot of coronary heart. which is wonderful to see as we put together for [conference] video games in opposition to Wagner [and] Marist.”
#14 Wagner is at the moment the East’s top-ranked crew within the newest CWPA High-25 ballot whereas #25 Marist is defending MAAC champions—making the Seahawks and the Crimson Foxes LIU’s greatest obstacles to a MAAC title.
Regardless of a miraculous final second purpose that propelled them to extra time on the primary day of the Princeton Invitational, the Sharks dropped one-goal choices in opposition to the host Tigers and fellow Ivy Leaguer Harvard. They misplaced 17-16 in extra time to Princeton. Towards the Crimson, LIU fell behind 5-2 and by no means caught up, dropping 9-8.
A 14-9 win over Mount St. Mary’s on the Invite’s ultimate day put the Sharks at 5-4 total. With two weeks off Juarez and her gamers ready for what could be a season-defining journey to California for the Tina Finali Invitational, hosted by Cal Lutheran. LIU opens Friday in opposition to Cal Baptist, then will play Cal State Monterey Bay that afternoon. The sharks conclude their journey Saturday with matches in opposition to DIII Austin Faculty and #23 CSUN.
All 4 matches are winnable for an LIU squad that has to this point confirmed resilient. The Sharks opened their season at Michigan with an upset of then-Tenth ranked Indiana. They’ve additionally misplaced to #1 UCLA and #4 Stanford.
Miraculous shot just isn’t sufficient
The match in opposition to Princeton—which noticed LIU’s Jeannet Garcia nail an unbelievable half-tank shot proper earlier than the ultimate buzzer—highlighted the Sharks’ strengths and weaknesses. They battled a younger Tiger squad that options freshmen Jovana Sekulic and Grace Houlahan together with sophomores Kaila Carroll and Kayla Yelensky.
[An Immigrants’ (Water Polo) Tale: Jovana & Matej Sekulic Land at Princeton]
Garcia, who collected three targets in opposition to Princeton, was virtually speechless following a powerful rally that fell simply brief after the guests scored twice within the ultimate 46 seconds.
LIU’s Jeannet Garcia. Picture Courtesy: LIU Athletics
“I cried after,” Garcia mentioned about her long-range rating. “I couldn’t imagine I had made it.”
Then, analyzing her crew’s efficiency, the third-year participant from Hialeah Excessive Faculty opined that: “There’s so many issues we nonetheless must work on.”
With Garcia, Paola Dominguez, Kate Hinrichs—one of many final cuts from the South African 2020 Olympic squad—Jessica Dean, final 12 months’s main scorer, and Elena Camarena, like Dominguez a preseason choose for MAAC participant of the 12 months, Juarez has greater than an sufficient offense to deal with any crew not within the nation’s prime ten.
However, as Camarena acknowledged after she and her teammates surrendered 11 targets to the Tigers within the second half: “We’ve got to work loads on protection as a result of when a crew scores on you 17 targets, it’s actually arduous to win.”
Towards Princeton there have been defensive breakdowns that allowed the Tigers to swarm goalie Julia Zebak on breakaways. Fortunately, there’s time to regulate; LIU loved a two week break earlier than their California journey. After they return dwelling there’s a weekend in Cambridge for the Harvard Invitational earlier than the Sharks’ first MAAC match of 2022—additionally their first-ever in opposition to cross-borough rival St. Francis Brooklyn. Regardless of being a mere 10 metropolis blocks aside, the 2 applications have by no means met because of the coronavirus pandemic which impacted play the final two seasons.
After St. Francis on the nineteenth, LIU travels to Poughkeepsie the subsequent day to face Marist, defending MAAC champs. In a single prior assembly (2020), the Crimson Foxes scored a decisive 16-8 win.
Camarena—who notched 5 scores in opposition to Princeton, giving her 19, second on the crew to Dominguez—mentioned: “Each crew needs to win each recreation, however I believe we’re getting higher each recreation and that’s what we have to do for convention.”
In maybe the understatement of this younger season, Dominguez, who has paced the Sharks this 12 months with 26 targets, mentioned: “We’re not going to surrender simple.”
The Princeton ladies survived a Shark assault. Picture Courtesy: Princeton Athletics.
Acknowledging there’s a chip on her crew’s collective shoulder, a results of lacking out on the 2021 MAAC Championships regardless of sweeping to an everyday season title, Dominguez defined that her crew comes into 2022 “stronger than ever.”
“[O]ur juniors are going into their third 12 months they usually haven’t even had a full season but due to COVID, we couldn’t end our season,” she mentioned.
[Commentary: LIU Water Polo Withdrawal from MAAC Championships Another COVID-19 Casualty]
They may must be at their finest to topple a Wagner program that has misplaced one MAAC match in its final six years of convention play—by forfeit after MAAC management determined the Seahawks had performed a non-sanctioned convention match in opposition to Marist. The Sharks and Seahawks have but to satisfy as a consequence of COVID restrictions. Wagner sat out your entire 2021 season.
The Sharks and Seahawks meet on March 27 in Staten Island and once more on April 15 in Brooklyn.
Hialeah within the Home
On the core of a deep LIU roster is a trio of gamers that excelled for Hialeah Excessive Faculty. Dominguez, Garcia and Alejandra Aranguren have been mainstays of a Thoroughbreds squad that captured the 2018 Florida women’ state water polo title—the primary time a public highschool had ever captured prime women’ polo honors within the Florida Excessive Faculty Athletic Affiliation (FHSAA) competitors.
Alex Donis – who coached that Hialeah crew for greater than a decade earlier than searching for different polo alternatives—mentioned lately that Aranguren, Dominguez and Garcia will “all the time be my women!”
[On The Record With Alex Donis, Coach for Hialeah Storm and Hialeah High School Water Polo]
“Jeannet’s come into her true type on the offensive aspect, not having to defer anymore to different folks,” he mentioned, then persevering with his scouting report, mentioned: “To me Paola’s among the best shooters within the nation.
Hialeah’s 2018 state champs. Coach Donis is on the far proper. Picture Courtesy: Miami Herald
About Aranguren, who has been pushed to the second crew because of nice recruiting the previous two seasons, Donis mentioned: “Alejandra all the time knew she wasn’t going to play heart for 4 quarters. She did an excellent job coming off the bench and accepting [that role].”
The previous Thoroughbreds’ coach issued a warning—clearly biased—relating to what the remainder of the MAAC ought to put together for this season: “Everyone is in for an enormous shock come the tip of the season.”
Camarena, who could also be her crew’s most essential participant, added that: “In convention we need to be one of the best model of our crew.”
Her coach identified simply what that may take.
“[We’ll] regulate to the little tweaks now we have to make… make these tweaks and now we have the potential to win a MAAC championships.” Juarez mentioned.
