Glendora, CA - The Los Angeles Valley College Men's Water Polo team made it four WSC titles in a row on Saturday afternoon with their sudden-death overtime victory over Citrus College. The Monarchs, who were seeded #1 headed into the tournament, got a goal from Vasil Halchev in the third overtime period to secure a conference championship.
LA Valley closed out a perfect 4-0 regular season record on Wednesday the 25th with a 16-8 win at Santa Monica College. As luck would have it, the Corsairs would get another crack at the Monarchs in the semi-finals of the WSC Championships after they knocked off Ventura College 10-7 in the opening round. Unfortunately for SMC, the result was nearly identical to their first meeting with Valley winning 16-6.
That led to the championship tilt with Citrus, their fourth straight meeting in the WSC Water Polo Championship Game. The Owls beat #3 seeded Cuesta College 14-9 in the semi-finals to earn the berth. In the final game of the weekend, Valley jumped out in front of Citrus with a pair of scores to take a 2-0 lead, but the Owls scored two goals in the final 1:30 of the first quarter to tie the game up at 2-2 after one.
In the second, Valley outscored Citrus 5-1 to take out a 7-3 lead at the break. In the third, the Owls managed to outscore the Monarchs by one to make it 6-9 headed into the final frame. Citrus would score four of the first five goals of the fourth quarter to tie the game up at 10-10 with 4:56 to play in regulation. Valley would edge back out in front with a strike by Carson Arnett to make it 11-10, but Citrus got an answer by Keith Green on their next possession to tie the game up at 11-11 with 3:17 left. That would be the final score in regulation for either team.
In the first overtime, Citrus got their first lead of the game with a goal by Mark Naranjo with 1:14 to go, but Valley managed to even the game back up with 14 seconds left in the first OT. The Owls would jump back out in from twice more, scoring with 1:28 left and 52 seconds left in the second OT to inch ahead. Each time the Monarchs answered with Halchev tying the game up at 13-13, and then Artur Mheryan forcing sudden death OT with a score with 37 seconds left in the game. In the third OT, Halchev landed the final blow to give the Monarchs the title.