Glendale girls’ water polo makes quick work of rival Hoover
GLENDALE — In one fell swoop, the Glendale High girls’ water polo team enjoyed a spectacular first quarter at the expense of its cross-town rival.
It almost seemed like clockwork for Glendale, which tallied 10 first-quarter goals en route to a 21-8 Pacific League home win against Hoover on Tuesday.
“You know coming in that you have to come out strong, especially against your city rival,” said Mondana Nassirpour, who scored three of her five goals in the first quarter to help the Nitros (8-4, 2-0 in league) build a 10-1 lead. “Hoover is always one of the games I look forward to and we all have friends on their team.
“We were able to get a lot of counter-attacks, make good passes and capitalize on our scoring chances. That’s what we need to continue doing to have success.”
Nassirpour’s third goal in the opening quarter gave the Nitros a 4-0 lead with 4:42 to go. The Nitros scored the first nine goals before Hoover’s Inga Akopyan cut the deficit to 9-1 with 29 seconds left.
Glendale, which qualified for the playoffs last season, held a 13-3 halftime lead.
“We definitely played well in the first quarter and it’s just mostly about gaining more experience with each league match,” Glendale coach Casey Sripramong said. “I liked the way we finished for the most part.
“We just have to keep playing together and coming out strong like we did today.”
Glendale got four goals from Arpa Shahbazian, three from Liliya Ter-Barsegyan, two each from Anna Ter-Mkrtchyan, Jamie Fritz and Aleh Shahbazian and one apiece from Lili Barker, Emma Mueller and Gabriela Garcia.
Hoover (3-10, 1-2) couldn’t generate any momentum following its 10-9 league victory against Burbank on Thursday.
“It’s always a big game when you play your cross-town rival,” Hoover coach Brittany Connell said. “You want to go out there and perform to perfection.
“You have that added pressure of coming to play at Glendale and maybe we psyched ourselves out at the start of the game. Glendale played a fast game and outhustled us. I thought we played a lot better in the second half.”
The Tornadoes got four goals from Arpi Lusparyan, two from Meleenae Goumrikian and one each from Preni Allahyarian and Akopyan.
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
