Men's Water Polo is fresh off its 31st Western State Conference (WSC) title with a win over WSC rival LA Valley, 15-14 and earned a bid to their 44th straight post-season- they have never missed the playoffs. Cuesta College's most successful sport opens the post-season with a re-match against Los Angeles Valley College. The Cougars earned the 4th-seed, while the rival Monarchs landed in the 5th spot. Neither team is excited about the re-match, as it shall be their fourth meeting in less than three weeks, while also forcing one of the representatives of the WSC out of the chance to reach the CCCAA State Championship. Los Angeles Valley won their first meeting with the Cougars, 17-12, on October 26 at the Golden West Tournament, but, just four days later in SLO they lost a conference game by the same margin, 15-10. Last weekend the Cougars, again, beat their rival for the WSC Title, 15-14, thanks to Johnny Starr's game winning goal with 23 seconds left in regulation. Starr's late second heroics mirrored last season's dramatic finish, when his teammate Oliver Finley (pict) also beat LA Valley with a last second shot. Cuesta Coach Greg Enloe, Cuesta's third men's water polo coach since 1979, has earned titles in each of his first two seasons on the bench and is halfway to the run of four titles enjoyed by previous Cuesta Skippers Terry Bowen and John Marsh, who both opened their tenures with a WSC "Four-peat". The Cuesta Poloists are currently 20-13 on the season
The Cougars and Monarchs shall meet at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa this Friday (3:15) as the 4th and 5th-seeds in the 2024 CCCAA Southern California Regional Playoffs. Cuesta, as the 2024 Western State Conference earned the higher seed and shall wear the dark caps as the designated home team.
