The Pacific Coast Athletic Conference men and women’s water polo championship tournament is scheduled this Friday and Saturday, Nov. 5-6, at Southwestern College. The Grossmont College Griffins have an eye of not only appearing in the championship games but winning them.
“It’s been a process,” said Grossmont men’s head coach Ty Lackey, whose team earned the top seed in the men’s tournament with a 10-0 regular season record. “A slower process than we’re used to, but we’ve never faced a COVID-19 season before. A lot of things have changed but it’s been fun. The boys haven’t given up; they keep pushing hard.”
The Griffins (20-12 overall) finished 3-1 at last weekend’s Dia de los Muertos tournament at Southwestern College, with its lone loss coming in begrudging fashion in the final five seconds to Cerritos College.
Grossmont entered the game ranked seventh in the state while Cerritos was ranked eighth.
Key players this season include Brock Kammerer (University City), Garrett Durado (Poway), Emiliano Castro (Bonita Vista), Austin Gaeir (Granite Hills), Ryan Beery (Classical Academy) and goalkeeper Parker George (Grossmont).
The Griffins’ challengers this weekend look to be San Diego Mesa, San Diego Miramar and Southwestern — all of which finished 6-4 in the conference standings.
The Grossmont College women’s team finished 8-2 in conference, 15-7 overall — runner-up in the conference standings to Palomar (10-0 in conference, 14-8 overall).
The Lady Griffins finished 4-0 last weekend.
“We have five sophomores who are coming back from the COVID-19 year,” Grossmont head coach Larry Larsen said. “It’s been a mix. Everybody plays. We have kind of two stars and we kind of rotate everyone.”
Standouts include Maddy Ward (Granite Hills), Maddie Logsdon (Valhalla) and goalkeeper Breanna Kelley (Steele Canyon). Ward anchors the defense but can also move up offensively.
“We play strong defense as a team,” Larsen said. “We allow very few goals.”
