The Collegian

Issue date: 10/28/05 Section: Opinion

Sarah Watt goes up for the ball, but was out numbered two to one. [Click to enlarge]

Down by one goal, eight seconds remaining and play is stopped when the Merced College goalkeeper fouls a streaking Delta breakaway. Sarah Watt, the school recordholder and league leader in goals, swims up for the penalty shot. "Crack" off the crossbar and a rebound that lands delicately in front of the Merced goalie and time runs out. The Mustang women's water polo team lost 5-6 in heartbreaking fashion to the league's top seed.

According to Mustang's head coach Mike Leabo, this was Watt's first penalty shot miss of the season, and he was happy to keep the game so close against a powerful team.

Foreshadowing the end of the game, the entire contest was action and drama filled. The teams battled back and forth, goal for goal. Merced's offense seemed to be more on point as they drilled Delta goalkeeper Melisa Addison early and often. Addison completed the game with over a dozen saves.

"We played well and hard together today. We have a physical rivalry [against Merced] and we will get them in the playoffs." said Addison.

The first quarter was quiet, as neither team could find the back of the net, until the final minute when Mustang Elise Schwartz broke the deadlock with a right-handed rocket shot. Merced answered 15 seconds later to knot things up.

Merced jumped out into the lead with a goal late in the half after a controversial foul, which left Addison out of position and the goal wide open. Delta's offense was firing hard at the Merced defense, but kept hitting the iron of the goal instead of the net.

"We moved and worked well together on offense. On defense we played good man to man, and most importantly we communicated," said Watt.

The third quarter saw plenty of scoring wire-to-wire. Twenty seconds in, Mustang team captain Katrina Cockerill scored on a breakaway. After exchanging goals in the middle of the period, Merced pulled ahead with a goal with one second left on the clock.

Going into the final period, the two teams had decisively different strategies. Merced wanted to slow things down, while Delta was looking to counterattack quickly.

"They are a strong, veteran team, and we made adjustments to give them less shots," said Leabo.

Watt and Schwartz each scored a goal in the early minutes of the final quarter. Merced came back to score two goals in the final three minutes to pull away for good. Schwartz had the hot hand and a hat trick on the day.

"I had the strong arm, but this was really an awesome all-around effort," said Schwartz.

This was the final league and regular season match for the Lady Mustangs. This weekend they will battle at home in a playoff tournament for all the marbles. The top two league finishers will advance forward to the NorCal Championships.

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