Long Beach State University Athletics
Beach Water Polo starts season at UCLA Saturday
1/27/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
Jan. 27, 2011
Long Beach, Calif. - Women's Water Polo opens up the 2011 season this weekend with their first match, traveling across town to play No. 4 UCLA at 1 p.m. in Westwood.
The 49ers, in their third season under head coach Gavin Arroyo, are relying on a core group of veteran players to balance out the additions from two numerous and talented recruiting classes that have joined the program.
Long Beach State returns 14 letterwinners from last year's team and welcomes back a host of starters, including the team's four top scorers from last season in senior Lauren Sieprath, juniors Krizia Cerda and Katie Rogers, and sophomore Chelsea Grabowski. Cerda led the team with 50 goals scored, while Sieprath added 37 over the season.
Head coach Gavin Arroyo is going to lean on that group to help provide leadership for a team that has 19 underclassmen and just seven juniors and seniors. "We're really hoping that our seniors in particular provide the leadership that we expect out of them," noted Arroyo. "They are all very experienced, having played and started since they were freshman, and they should really help our younger players in a number of ways."
In particular, where that group will help is in guidance for Arroyo's team-based attack, that doesn't feature any particular player and instead looks for opportunities as they arise. In that system, any one of the players from the last two recruiting classes could join Cerda, Sieprath and Rogers as threats for the 49ers.
"There's plenty of room for any of our new players to seize an opportunity this year," said Arroyo. "Their success will depend on how they fit in and execute, and how quickly that happens. This is a pretty extraordinary group though; they're very talented and hard-working."
While the 49ers have increased balance on the attacking end, the anchor for the team is senior goalkeeper Kristen Stragier, who enters her fourth season as the netminder for Long Beach State. Straker, who ranks second all-time in career saves at Long Beach State with 733, needs just 134 saves to become the career leader in that category. More importantly, she's a vocal leader and will be counted on to provide the defense that will help Long Beach State take the next step.
"It's pretty ambitious to think that we can go from sixth to first in one year," said Arroyo. "But I definitely think that this is the year that we start making our move, and that's our goal for this season."
That road starts Saturday at UCLA.
