Harbor seeks revenge

Is there a better way to spoil a team’s undefeated campaign than in the championship game?

The Newport Harbor High girls’ water polo team has the opportunity to ruin the perfect season Dos Pueblos of Goleta has turned in so far. The Sailors are up for the challenge.

The second-seeded Sailors (25-5) face the top-seeded Chargers (30-0) in the CIF Southern Section Division I title game tonight at 6:30 at Irvine High.

“I think we’re looking forward to seeing Dos Pueblos, just because we’ve never beaten [the Chargers],” said Newport Harbor senior Kate Klippert, whose team is 0-2 against Dos Pueblos this season. “They’re undefeated, so we want to beat them. We want to be that team [that ended the Chargers’ season with a loss].”

Newport Harbor has come close to knocking off the Chargers once this season.

The Sailors played without their top scoring threat, Kaleigh Gilchrist, and lost to Dos Pueblos, 6-5, in the final of the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions on Jan. 16. Back then, Gilchrist was on her way to New Zealand to compete with the USA surf team at the Quiksilver International Surfing Assn. World Junior Championships.

The USC-bound senior is back. Gilchrist and company will try to wipe out the Chargers from winning their second straight Division I section title.

The effort in Santa Barbara without Gilchrist bodes well for the Sailors’ confidence. Only two teams this season have tested Dos Pueblos, and they are Newport Harbor and Los Alamitos, the first- and second-place teams from the robust Sunset League.

The Channel League champion Chargers are tough to beat due to Sami Hill’s stellar goalie play and Kiley Neushul’s scoring prowess. They still had to fight their way into the section final.

Dos Pueblos beat fourth-seeded Los Alamitos, 9-8, in the semifinals Wednesday. The score between the two programs was the same in the title match of the Irvine Southern California Championships on Feb. 6.

The second day of that tournament was a wake-up call for Newport Harbor. The Sailors dropped their two matches that day and finished a disappointing fourth.

“We had our ups and downs in that Irvine tournament, but I think we came back,” Newport Harbor Coach Bill Barnett said.

“Although we didn’t play particularly well in the first two CIF games, I think [we] really put it together [during our 8-6 semifinal victory against Corona del Mar].”

With one match left, expect Barnett to put together an outstanding game plan against the Chargers.

The legendary coach is almost perfect in girls’ section title matches.

Barnett is 4-1 in the big game, while his counterpart Danelle Little is 2-0, one of those crowns coming in Division II in 2008.

Little guided Dos Pueblos to its first Division I title last season on the day of her 31st birthday.

Only one team gets to party tonight. The Sailors hope to blow the candles off the Chargers’ perfect season and celebrate their second section title in three seasons.