Glendale girls’ water polo overcomes Bell Gardens
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GLENDALE — Things came together well for the Glendale High girls’ water polo team in the second half.
Down by a goal entering the third quarter, the Nitros put on an impressive display at both ends of the deck.
Glendale scored nine goals and yielded just one in the second half en route to a 17-10 nonleague home win against Bell Gardens on Thursday.
“We talked at halftime about playing together more and then we started doing vey well, said Glendale’s Jamie Fritz, who paced the Nitros (6-3) with a team-high seven goals. “We knew we had to come out strong in the second half and the third quarter turned out to be a big turning point.”
Glendale trailed, 9-8, at halftime and then took control against Bell Gardens (3-2).
The Nitros, who qualified for the playoffs last season, got four goals in a row from Liliya Ter-Barsegyan to build a 14-10 advantage.
“The more I use my legs to swim, the harder my shot is,” Ter-Barsegyan said. “It worked out well in the third quarter and we had a complete turnaround.
“We were able to get to the ball and create scoring chances.”
Fritz scored six first-half goals to keep the Nitros close. Her final goal in the half gave Glendale a 7-6 lead with 5:10 remaining. Bell Gardens then closed out the half on a 3-1 run.
“We had to make sure at halftime that we needed to play an overall better game,” Glendale coach Casey Sripramong said. “I think we were more committed and we had a great third quarter. We made a lot of improvements.”
Bell Gardens took a 2-0 lead in the first quarter on a pair of goals from Jennifer Reyes before Glendale scored three unanswered goals to grab a 3-2 lead. Fritz scored from the right side to give the Nitros a 3-2 lead with 2:37 to go. Later in the quarter, Fritz scored a man-advantage goal to tie it at 5 with 1:07 left.
Glendale got three goals from Emma Mueller and one apiece from Gabriela Garcia and Bernice Doronila. The Nitros scored on half of their six man-advantage opportunities.
Bell Gardens received five goals from Reyes and four from Estephanie Garcia.
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
