The City College women’s water polo team captured its first CCCAA state championship in school history after a succesful 31-3 season on Saturday.

The team won another conference championship and has won every year it has been coached by head coach Brian Roth. City College took down Sierra College 8-6 on Saturday, Nov. 18, to secure the spot as the number one team in the state of California.

“It feels great,” said freshman Emma Fraser. “With all the hard work the team put in, it just feels amazing for it to pay off.”

Fraser won most valuable player of the entire tournament. Fraser had 16 total goals in the playoffs along with three goals and three assists in the championship.

“It was an awesome surprise to have won. I couldn’t have done what I did without everyone on the team doing their part,” said Fraser. “I’m just so proud of the whole team.

“She’s a gamer. She has a lot of big game experience,” said Roth. “She’s probably the best outside shooter at this level but she is also very humble.”

Halie Johnson and Meagan Mckillican of City College also received all-tournament team honors for their performances.

Johnson had nine assists and 12 steals, including seven in the championship. Mckillican did a little of everything, from scoring, to stealing the ball and setting up teammates for solid scoring opportunities.

“I would like to highlight Halie Johnson. She had seven steals in the final and played a phenomenal weekend,” said Roth.

Johnson was also the team leader with four goals in the semi-final win against San Joaquin Delta.

“I felt that it was an overall team effort,” said Johnson. “Nobody would have scored a goal without getting a good pass from someone else.”

Roth praised the commitment of everybody on the entire team. He said that everyday the team was a “full team,” and rarely had anybody miss practices and games.

“We won because every single person on this team put in the effort and wanted the championship so much,” said Mckillican. “We all played with heart and had fun doing it”

In the regular season, City College only had trouble handling Riverside— who accounted for two of the three City College losses— so it was a big challenge and a fitting matchup in the playoffs.

City College got its revenge with a 6-4 win in the Southern California Regional Finals.

“We did struggle earlier in the season with them and I think it was all just a growing process for our team,” said Mckillican. “The victory we had over them in regionals solidified our unity as a team.”

“When we played them and beat them, we were pretty fired up. It felt good,” said Roth.

City College had 10 players receive all-conference honors this season. Five players were first-team, including Fraser who was the Western State Conference player of the year.

Roth has coached this team to four consecutive conference titles, and last year the team finished second overall in state. He said it was a special feeling to finally be crowned state champions for the first time.

“Winning the So Cal championships was awesome, but winning that state title was something special.”