Newport Beach 10Us earn bronze

IRVINE — Perspective is not always something easily gained by a 10-year-old.

Yet, after the Newport Beach Water Polo Club 10-and-under team won the bronze medal in the 10U mixed division Sunday at the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics with a 12-6 victory over Laguna Beach, perspective did not appear to be in short supply.

Perhaps Finn LeSieur, who led Newport Beach in the bronze-medal game with five goals, said it best after the game ended at Woollett Aquatics Center.

“I feel really happy,” said LeSieur after the players received their medals and posed for pictures on the podium. “I wanted to win [the tournament], but I’m just as happy to get the bronze medal. We had a tough loss against Vanguard, but that’s part of water polo.”

Newport Beach did indeed have a tough game Sunday morning in the semifinals, losing to rival Vanguard Blue, the top seed, 10-6. Yet, Newport was able to bounce back when it mattered.

Center Ben Liechty, just a 9-year-old, still was a force to be reckoned with. He had four goals, four steals and an assist. He also drew six exclusions and a penalty shot for Newport Beach, which went three for seven on the power play.

“I think he did a good job of holding position, and flicking it back out when our defender crashed,” LeSieur said.

Owen Tift, Tyler Slutzky and Peter Castillo also scored for Newport Beach, coached by former UCLA player Aimone Barabino. And the defense, led by set guard Nick Kennedy and goalie Ryder Wendell-Cook (five saves and a steal), was resolute. Laguna Beach converted just two of seven chances with the extra player.

“Hard work pays off, you know?” Barabino said. “[We’ve been working on] just basic water polo, working on skills for these kids. Not only for them to win games here, but also for them to one day play for a college. In water polo, it’s very, very important to know the basic skills of water polo. If we win, it’s better, but first I wanted to be a teacher and teach them the basics of water polo. This is a fantastic group, great individuals but, more importantly, a great team as a whole.”

Newport Beach never trailed, but also never led by more than a goal throughout the first half, which ended with Newport up, 4-3. But Newport began to pull away early in the third quarter, even after Laguna’s Nathaniel Evans scored to again trim the lead to a goal at 5-4.

LeSieur scored on a cross-cage shot, then again on a nice redirect play at two meters on a pass from Slutzky.

Laguna’s Charlotte Riches scored her second goal on the power play to cut the lead to 7-5, but then Liechty struck at two meters, assisted by Castillo, to push the lead back to three again entering the fourth quarter.

Newport was confident that it could hold on against Laguna Beach, which it beat, 13-7, in another tournament game on Saturday.

“I was confident, because we beat them every time,” Liechty said. “But they wanted to win too, so we still had to try. They did a good job sticking with us.”

Dane Clayton and Quinn Bartlett also had steals for Newport Beach, which also got contributions from Spencer Parsons, Wesley Hanson, Luke Caruthers, William Jacobsen, Gavin Netherton and Trent Smith.

The kids certainly had fun with their victory, enjoying their medals as well as big cookies as a treat.

“I like it,” Kennedy said. “If we’re not top two in the tournament, then third is good, really good. It’s really fun.”

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•The Newport Beach boys were not the only ones to earn bronze Sunday. Recent Newport Harbor High graduates Rachel Whitelegge and Kate Pipkin helped the SET A 18-and-under girls earn bronze medals as well.

SET A beat Commerce, 9-7, in the bronze-medal match after losing to top-seeded Santa Barbara 805 A, 6-5, in the semifinals.

“I’m really excited,” said the UCLA-bound Whitelegge. “We were always playing with our high school team [at Junior Olympics], and we never had that great of a shot at getting a medal. To get this far was really exciting, and even though we didn’t play for gold, it’s still an awesome feeling.”

Each played roles in the bronze medal match. Whitelegge assisted SET’s first goal in the first quarter, a strike by Mia Salvini of Laguna Beach High. Then, Pipkin provided some big offense in the second quarter.

She scored twice in a row within a minute, once on a cross-cage lob and once on a rocket shot to the upper right corner. The goals gave SET a 5-3 advantage, and it kept the lead over Commerce through the rest of the game.

“I feel like [Saturday] and today I hadn’t really been firing on all cylinders,” said the Indiana-bound Pipkin, who also had two steals. “But everyone on the team is super-supportive … I know that I definitely got a pump up from a few of the girls on the team. I guess it just kind of fell into place in the last game, thankfully. It felt really good just to be able to put some away today.”

The CdM Aquatics 18U girls finished 14th in the platinum bracket after losing to Elite, 7-6, in the 13th-place match. The Newport Water Polo Foundation girls finished 20th after an 11-3 loss to Foothill Red.

680 Red beat Santa Barbara 805, 6-3, in the 18-and-under gold medal match.

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•Newport Harbor High incoming sophomore Jessica Lynch helped the SOCAL Black 16U girls win bronze after a wild 10-10 (6-5 in shootout) win over 680 Red. The team was coached by Lynch’s dad, Jason, the former Newport Harbor boys’ water polo coach.

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•Costa Mesa Aquatics Club also was proud after its 10U mixed team finished 14th in the platinum division. Coach Jose De La Jara said it is the club’s first team to ever qualify for the platinum division at the Junior Olympics.

Members of the Costa Mesa team included Rachell Hemmila, Kira Anderson, Dharma Andreas, Mark Casey, Blake Douglas, Thomas Geroch, Cody Ho, Wyatt Juelfs, Reed Pantaleon, Matthew Prasarnsuk, Everett Rowden, Soleil Limon, William McCarthy, Lucas Ramirez and Landon Akerstrom.

CMAC went 4-4 overall in the tournament, falling to SC Tritons in a shootout in the 13th-place match.