Golden Valley snaps long losing streak against Merced

Marissa Wyan was beaming. The smile never left her face as she posed for postgame pictures with her teammates.

Wyan and the Golden Valley water polo team had reason to celebrate on Tuesday night as the Cougars squeaked out a 7-6 win over Merced.

Not only did Golden Valley take sole possession of first place in the Central California Conference at 5-0, but the Cougars snapped a 17-game losing streak to the Bears. It was Golden Valley’s first win against Merced since a 7-6 overtime win at Merced College on Oct. 3, 2006.

“The whole season, this is the one game we’ve been looking forward to,” said Wyan, who scored five goals and came away with four steals. “It’s a huge win. I can’t even explain it. Every year we’ve tried to beat them. Finally, my senior year we did it.”

Golden Valley’s game plan was similar to every Merced opponent: Try not to let Kathryn Elgin shoot.

Wyan and Grace Mello took turns guarding the Bears’ leading scorer and they had plenty of help with double teams and other players dropping off their player to take away passing lanes.

“Kathyrn is an amazing player and we all know it,” Wyan said. “We did what we needed to do. We know when she shoots, it’s likely going in. We felt safer to let other players take shots.”

After a slow first quarter by both teams, Wyan scored two goals in the second quarter to help the Cougars (13-6 overall) take a 4-3 lead into halftime.

After a scoreless third quarter, and with Golden Valley’s defense sagging back on Elgin, Merced’s Clare Camper was able to advance the ball inside 5 meters and fired a shot to tie the score at 4-4 with 5:05 left in the game.

“Our girls had a hard time shooting,” Bears coach Seth Gentry said. “We weren’t too confident in the first half. We were more confident in the second half and had an opportunity to win – it just didn’t happen.”

Wyan answered Camper’s goal with two of her own as she spun away from a defender to give Golden Valley a 5-4 lead with 4:15 left. She added another goal 40 seconds later to extend the lead to 6-4.

Merced took advantage of a man-up situation a minute later as Francess Carpenter scored to cut the deficit to 6-4 with 2:26 left.

Golden Valley again looked to have some breathing room as Mello (one goal, five assists and four steals) found Wyan open for another goal to give the Cougars a 7-5 lead with 1:37 left.

However, Elgin scored her third goal of the game to pull the Bears back within 7-6 with 59 seconds remaining.

“It was so nerve-racking,” Wyan said. “We’d go up and then they would rise to the occasion.”

Golden Valley goalie Sky Cyr (nine saves) preserved the victory with three big saves in the final minute. Elgin had one final shot at the buzzer, but her shot was deflected wide of the goal.

“I thought Golden Valley got to do what they wanted to do and they got the ball to Marissa,” Gentry said. “She did well tonight. I thought (Cyr) played good, too. I thought she was the difference.”

Getting past Merced was a big bump in the road for the Cougars.

“Huge win,” Golden Valley coach Bill Gossett said. “I don’t know if they truly believed they could beat Merced because of the legend of Merced. So the fact that we beat Merced, that’s a big thing for these girls. Now they believe.”

Buhach Colony 6, Atwater 5 at Atwater – The Thunder picked up its first CCC win since 2012 as Gwynne McBride and Pamela Solano scored two goals each and McBride added six steals.

El Capitan 14, Livingston 7 at Livingston – Hope Stokes dominated with six goals, five assists and three steals to lead the Gauchos past the Wolves.

Boys Water Polo

Merced 15, Golden Valley 6 at Merced – Eathan Eagleton turned in a nice all-around performance with two goals, four assists and seven steals to pace the Bears (14-1, 5-0 CCC). Sam Kuykendall added four goals and four steals for Merced.

Tommy Hamilton, Jensen Gong and Zach McAuley scored two goals each for Golden Valley (1-4).

Atwater 11, Buhach Colony 7 at Atwater – Luke van Warmerdam scored three goals for the Falcons (3-1 CCC) and Wyatt Pimentel, Connor Norton, Elias Marquez all added two goals. Tristan Howard and Joe Bustabade each scored a pair of goals for the Thunder in the loss.

El Capitan 19, Livingston 5 at Livingston – Steven Koenig scored five goals and assisted on four others as the Gauchos improved to 12-4 overall and 3-0 in the Western Athletic Conference.

This story was originally published October 7, 2015 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Golden Valley snaps long losing streak against Merced."