Close, but no title for local teams

Sea Kings run out of steam in the title game. Sailors bounce back from semifinal loss to beat Montebello for third.IRVINE -- The Corona del Mar High girls’ water polo team reached the championship game of the Irvine Southern California Tournament on Saturday at the William J. Woolett, Jr. Aquatics Center, and Newport Harbor made it to the semifinals, but neither emerged with title they were seeking.

Corona del Mar defeated Montebello, 8-4, in one semifinal before falling to Foothill, 8-2, in the championship game. Newport Harbor lost to Foothill, 5-3, in the other semifinal.

For Corona del Mar, it may have been a matter of running out of steam a game too early. In the last four days, the Sea Kings had finals week, played six games -- including Wednesday’s Pacific Coast League showdown against rival Laguna Beach -- and had their winter formal.

Corona del Mar Coach Aaron Chaney was hoping his team had a little energy left after an exhausting week, but the team appeared to leave what they had in the pool after its semifinal victory Saturday morning.

“I’m very proud of what the girls have done this week, they gave me everything they had,” Chaney said. “But they ran out of gas.”

It marked the fourth meeting this season between Foothill, ranked No. 2 in CIF Southern Section Division I, and Corona del Mar, ranked No. 1 in Division II. The Knights evened the season tally at 2-2 with the lopsided victory.

The Sea Kings defeated the Knights in a semifinal of the Holiday Cup Tournament and the championship game of the Tournament of Champions.

But it was all Foothill on Saturday. After junior Katie Indvik scored a power play goal to tie the score, 1-1, with 1:20 left in the first quarter, Foothill went on a 6-0 run. Corona del Mar went 16 minutes, 21 seconds without scoring before Ashley Chandler finally found the back of the net with 5:59 left in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 7-2.

Corona del Mar outshot Foothill, 25-22, but it was only 1-for-5 with the man advantage.

Foothill played tight, pressure defense that seemed to bother the Sea Kings.

“They pressured us more [than in the first three meetings],” Chaney said. “Right from the first quarter, they jumped on us.”

Pressuring an understandably tired Sea Kings squad did the trick for the Knights.

“I think it [the busy week] caught up to us today,” Corona del Mar goalkeeper Tumua Anae said. “We gave it our all, but Foothill made the plays today.”

After losing a tight game to Foothill in the semifinals in the morning, Newport Harbor (No. 1 in Division I) pulled it together in time to win the third-place game. The Sailors jumped to a 3-0 lead on two goals by Kally Lucas and one by Calli Manderino.

Early in the third quarter, Montebello had charged back to tie the score, 3-3. But the Sailors went on their second three-goal spurt of the game, highlighted by Lucas’ power play goal after a triple-pump fake, to pull away.

Lucas, who had a team-high four goals in the game and 23 goals in the tournament, and teammate Leah Robertson were all-tournament selections.

For Corona del Mar, Anae was an all-tournament pick and Camille Hewko was named the Outstanding Field Player of the tournament.

Irvine Southern

California Tournament

Championship game

Foothill 8, Corona del Mar 2

Score by Quarters