History repeated for the West Valley College Men's Water Polo team, claiming four victories down south at the Cerritos and Long Beach mini-tournament. The Vikings first faced off against the Palomar Comets. Berkecan Yalcin dropped seven goals, followed by Phil Portisch and Taine Pickering, each notching up five. The Vikings sailed through the Comets with a final score of WVC 20 - Palomar 5.
Friday got interesting when the Vikings went toe-to-toe with the Cerritos Falcons. In the first quarter, WVC jumped ahead when Portisch scored two goals and Shayan Rezvani one. The Falcons were not intimidated as they put four goals past Ethan Ivey to put Cerritos ahead 4-3. Once again, Portisch stepped up for the Vikings and scored with 38 seconds left in the quarter to tie the game 4-4. Falcon fans thought the game would be close; throughout the four quarters, the Vikings kept calm and played their game. The Vikings pulled ahead in the second quarter by six goals, and Ethan Ivey put the wall up, shutting out the Falcons in the second period, closing with a Viking lead 10-4. The second half of the game was uneventful, with the Vikings securing the lead and ending the game 19-7.
Saturday morning, the Vikings faced off against Long Beach. The first half was a nail-biter, ending with WVC leading 6-5. Once again, the Vikings found their rhythm in the third period, jumping ahead by three goals with two goals from Ethan McLeod and Berkecan Yalcin and goals by Frank Sunseri, Phil Portisch, and Sy Lazzaroni. In the fourth quarter, the Vikings held the lead and closed out the game with a 15-11 win over the LBCC Vikings; much of the success was due to the wall Ethan Ivey, with 12 blocks.
The Vikings closed out the weekend against the OCC Pirates. The first and fourth quarters were indeed the most eventful of the game. In the first quarter, the Vikings jumped out with a 4-0 lead, thanks to Sy Lazzaroni and Berkecan Yalcin, each scoring two goals. The Pirates stayed strong and answered back with three goals in a row. The quarter ended with the Vikings and Pirates putting up one last goal to head into the second quarter. The Vikings dominated the second and third quarters, scoring seven goals (Berkecan 2, Ethan McLeod 2, Phil Portisch 2, Frank Sunseri 1) and Pirates four. The fourth quarter is when the game got interesting. Once again, the Vikings jumped out ahead and scored the first goal by Sunseri, but it wasn't long after that the Pirates answered back and scored two goals back-to-back, tightening the WVC lead to 13-10. The Pirates had the momentum and energy to battle, but it wasn't enough, as they only scored one more goal the rest of the way. The Vikings played incredible defense (Ivey 8 blocks, 3 steals, Sunseri 4 steals) until the end, denying the Pirates. The Vikings ended the game with their fourth weekend win, 14-12.
The next matchup is Wednesday, October 18th, against Cabrillo College at home.
