After swamping Sierra in the semifinal, the West Valley women's water polo team had to rally past San Joaquin with an epic third quarter to win its second-consecutive CCCAA Regional Championship Saturday night at Las Positas College in Livermore. Coach Erika Vargas's Vikings (30-2) advance to the CCCAA Women's Water Polo State Championship Nov. 19-20, also at LPC. The Vikings (30-2) are the #1 north seed and will battle south #2 Fullerton (23-4) Friday morning. A big second half against Sierra (13-6) and that magical third quarter against the Mustangs (23-4) kept the Vikings perfect (18-0) against northern teams in 2021.
NorCal Semifinal: West Valley over Sierra 18-4
The Vikings won the opening sprint, leading to a Johanna Scheer goal at 7:45. Scheer, the state's leading goal scorer (129), would connect on three more goals to give WVC a 5-2 lead after one. The Vikings blanked the Wolverines 6-0 in the second quarter behind four Kianna Melvin goals and one each from Scheer, Maria Higginbotham and Marija Mijuskovic. Mijuskovic added two more goals in the third, and single scores from Scheer and Kate Craig made it 15-3 heading to the final quarter. Gaby Thomas scored twice in a 3-1 Viking fourth quarter, while Scheer added another for the final 18-4 score.
Scheer finished with seven goals on eight shots. Mijuskovic had four goals and four steals, and Melvin logged three goals and a trio of steals. Higginbotham also grabbed three of WVC's 14 steals. Viking keeper Grace Smith added 12 saves to her state-leading 368 and moved to 26-2 on the year.
NorCal Final: West Valley over San Joaquin Delta 11-8
The Vikings and the Mustangs met for the third time in 2021 in the evening finale, this time with the regional title on the line. WVC took a 16-7 Sept. 18 win and escaped with a thrilling 8-7 three-overtime victory Oct. 16. Saturday's championship was a near duplicate of the October battle.
The deep Mustangs scored on their first posession and held a 3-2 lead after one. The teams traded goals, with WVC going up 5-4 on back-to-back goals from Mijuskovic and Aaliyah Lax, before Delta's Sophia Schwartz connected on a power-play goal with :29 left in the half to give the Mustangs a 6-5 lead at the break.
Scheer took over the game in the third, as she lit up the rather dark LPC pool with an incendiary five-goal outburst that included three unanswered scores inside the last three minutes of the quarter. Smith made sure the 10-7 lead held up the rest of the way as she shut down the Mustangs with six saves in the final stanza. A Melvin goal at :26 sealed the win, setting off a wild celebration from the Viking fans and men's team in the large crowd.
Scheer's seven goals gave her 136 on the year, while Smith made it 386 saves in 2021 with 13. Melvin, now fifth in goals in the CCCAA with 89, scored twice and added two steals and a field block. Mijuskovic handed out two assists, grabbed two steals and recorded a block. Lax was a defensive force in the middle all night with three huge field blocks. Higginbotham and Paige McCroskey each had two of WVC's 11 steals.
West Valley's state championship games will be livestreamed on Bay Area Online Sports Network (BAOSN). A link to BAOSN is available on the CCCAA website: https://www.cccaasports.org/sports/mwaterpolo/Championships