Over the weekend, the dominance continued and resulted in a CIF Division I Central Section Championship for the Arroyo Grande girls water polo program who now have five section titles to their name since 2003.
“I kept saying that you better hurry up and keep up with me because if we win, I'm going to be the first one to the pool with the girls," Head Coach Steven Allen recalled.
As promised, Allen joined his team in the pool after Arroyo Grande defeated Clovis 9-6; a team that in three of the last five years had beat them in the postseason. Getting the win over them and have it be for their first central section title, made the win that much more special.
“We wanted to make sure we played Clovis in the championship," Allen said. "We wanted them and we were really happy with how we played and got a win.”
“I think just coming back knowing that we're fully capable of doing so and also like the pressure of a championship game, we really just tried to keep the vibe up and just like be like, it's just another game,” senior Kayla Cecena explained.
The section championship comes on the heels of the boys program doing the same thing last season showing that they’re in fact in something in the water in Arroyo Grande.
“Seeing them win, we want[ed] to be in that same position,” Cecena said.
After a dominant postseason run as the 1-seed in Division I, the Eagles had one more obstacle to overcome. For the championship, they had to travel to Fresno State but the fans made it seem like a home game.
“We heard that it was not going to be a home game and then we were all kind of like, 'Oh, like how is our support going to be?' And we showed up at that game and our side was just as full as the Clovis side and we knew like our fans are behind us; they're supporting us all the way,” junior Berkley Sinner described of the crowd.
The season isn’t done though, with Regionals still to go, a team with four key seniors have a chance to make their last season last even longer and with this year’s group fresh off a section title, they have plans to go as far as possible.
“Hard work, works. That's something we say all the time," Sinner splained. "I know today we're going to get in the pool, we're going to watch the film, we're going to work...we're going to go tomorrow...we're going to get in the van...we're going to drive down there...we're going to practice before the game... we're going to show up and we're going to work no matter what it takes.”
Next up for the Eagles, a first round match-up against (2) Campolindo on the road in the CIF Division I NorCal Championships beginning Nov. 14. They previously lost to Campolindo 10-8 Oct. 20.
