The Long Beach City College women’s water polo team just wrapped up one of the most dominant seasons by any team at any level in city history. The Vikings blew through the CCCAA State Water Polo Tournament with three laugher wins, outscoring their opponents by a combined score of 59-17, and winning every game by at least 12 goals. They wrapped up a historically impressive season with a 21-6 win over Riverside in the state championship last weekend, earning back-to-back state titles for the Vikings.
The Vikings went 38-0 against Junior College competition and were a preposterous 2-2 against four-year NCAA schools in non-official scrimmages.
“In the 25 plus years I’ve been at City College we’ve never had an undefeated season,” said Vikings coach Chris Oeding.
Against NCAA schools: the Vikings beat Azusa Pacific 16-11 and Concordia 15-14, and fell to Cal State Northridge 12-10 and Biola 11-10.
“I don’t do a lot of looking at records or statistics or anything, but to compete against those four year schools and come away with a couple of wins was something that was impressive in hindsight for sure,” said Oeding.
The Vikings’ last loss to a Community College team? You’d have to go back to their third game of last year, Sep. 7 2024 when they fell 8-7 to Riverside. Since then they’ve won their last 74 games against competition at their level, including two dominant state championship performances.
The Vikings typically field rosters of 14-16 players, but have had so many high-talent athletes come to them the last few years that they carried 29 on the roster this year–and played them all, with 10 different Vikings scoring in the state championship game.
“In the first half of the season we never had the same starting lineup, we were always trying new combinations,” said Oeding. “It’s really a puzzle and it wasn’t a 250-piece jigsaw puzzle it was the 1,000-piece variety.”
Oeding said his team never focuses on records, but only on their culture and on process.
“Our job is to get these kids on to a four-year school and that’s still what we hang our hat on,” he said. “It’s special to win state two years in a row but ultimately we’re trying to get kids to take the next step. The water polo side of things takes care of itself.”
The Vikings will have anywhere from three to six players sign scholarships after the season ends.
This year they were led by freshman goalie Olivia Birdsall from JSerra, who had 123 saves and was one of five goalies the Vikings played this year. Birdsall started 18 games for LBCC this year and Oeding called her the cornerstone of the team’s defense.
Offensively, Spain native Mar Bernal led the way with 66 goals, backed up by Irene Pueyo Caballero, who had 58. The team had 13 players score at least 20 goals this season, showcasing their depth. Los Al alum Jennifer Connelly was a terror on both ends of the pool for the Vikings with 30 goals, 22 assists, and 24 steals for LBCC. Another standout was Amy Fritz who had 53 goals and a team-high 45 steals, spearheading a counter-attack that was lethal all year for the Vikings.
Oeding was proud of the way his team took defense so seriously. As a longtime assistant coach with the US Olympic team, he said what he felt really elevated his team to a higher level this year was the way each player looked to get field blocks or pressure the ball.
“That was a step beyond what I’d normally see,” he said. “You’d get an explosion of energy when you’re playing a man down and you get that block.”
Oeding credited the team’s massive success to the caliber of players they’ve been getting, but of course a lot of that has to do with the coaching pedigree, with an Olympic coach in himself as well as a three-time Olympian assistant coach in Los Al alum Rachel Fattal. He said he thinks the talent has been showing in part because of the state-of-the-art facility that LBCC recently opened, which hosted the state tournament last year. The team’s recent success is also self-propelling, with more and more players wanting to show up and be a part of the Vikings’ program.
“We’ve had so many players say, ‘High school or club didn’t turn out the way I wanted, I wasn’t sure I wanted to play in college and I’m so glad I did, I found the joy again,’” Oeding said. “The amount of kids having success who’ve never won before–they’re so happy to be a part of it that it almost brings tears to your eyes to just see that joy.”
