By After going 3-1 last week at the LMU Invite, the No. 16 Long Beach State women’s water polo team returned home to take on No. 10 Princeton at the Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center.
The Tigers (16-1) got off to a hot start both offensively and defensively, leading 4-0 at the end of the second quarter. Long Beach State was consistently attacking but had no luck scoring on Princeton goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson, who is also a member of the USA women’s water polo team.
Princeton continued its strong play into the second half, taking a 7-0 lead as fourth quarter play began. Long Beach State’s Alexandra Massier and Virginia Smith each responded with goals at the end of the fourth, making the final score 7-2.
Although the game was not very close despite the two fourth quarter goals, 49ers head coach Gavin Arroyo remained optimistic.
“Right now it’s just about us being positive mentally and even though we lost I think we’re gonna be ok in terms of how we approach our next game,” Arroyo said. “I think we could have done a better job on our man-down defense but right now I think we just want to try to be in a good place where we are competing and I felt like we did that tonight in terms of just good support and good encouragement.”
Junior utility Virginia Smith also took Wednesday night’s loss as a learning experience for the team.
“Tonight was the first time in awhile that we actually felt like a team, even though we lost we’re ok with this loss because we played much better together,” Smith said.
Long Beach State will take on Cal State Northridge on Saturday in their second Big West Conference game of the season.
“We have to come out strong and with some fire, not light up [at the end of the game] to win this second conference game,” junior Virginia Smith said.
