MC women in world of hurt

No championship team goes through a season without a little adversity.

And unfortunately for the Merced College women's water polo team, few have been able to offer much opposition to them in the pool this season. If anything, the Lady Devils' 25-1 record has at times been a little too smooth.

So head coach Bill Halpin wasn't the least bit surprised when injuries started to pop up at the end of the season.

First leading scorer Poni McGee (second in the state with 74 goals) had her shoulder pop out when she was struck from behind. Then captain Katie Elam (38 goals, 44 assists and 51 steals) suffered some bruised ribs when she was inadvertently kicked against De Anza.

Throw in a cold that's made its way through the team once the weather began to change and MC heads into Friday's Coast Conference Tournament less than 100 percent.

Not that excuses matter at this time of year.

"Basically we don't want to have to play on the Friday of the NorCal Tournament," sophomore Stevie Wills said. "That means we have to win the Coast Conference Tournament and get the NorCal No. 1 seed."

Three victories separates the Lady Devils from achieving that goal. MC ran the table with a perfect 7-0 record in the regular season. They'll open with De Anza in Cupertino at noon.

"Foothill (15-8) is still probably our toughest competition," Halpin said. "San Mateo also played us tough, because their coach has kind of an unconventional style.

"It should be ours for the taking, but we're a little banged up. My concern is the girls like Poni and Katie that haven't been able to go all out in practice the last couple weeks.

"Hopefully we can get out in front, get to rest some of our injured players and lock up the top seed for NorCals."

Even with a number of bodies coming in and out of practice, Elam said the intensity in practice hasn't waned.

"There's no room for slip ups," Elam said. "We lose one game now and we go from the one seed at NorCals to four or five.

"Everybody's starting to hurt, but we just have to push through it."

The MC men find themselves in the unenviable position of having to win the Coast Conference Tournament to make the postseason.

That's a tall order with state No. 3 West Valley standing in the Blue Devils' way. MC lost the regular-season encounter 22-3.

Scott McCall's squad will open with (school name) at (time) in Saratoga today.