Laguna Beach girls’ water polo streak snapped at Bill Barnett Holiday Cup
Streaks can’t last forever, even if it seemed like the Laguna Beach High girls’ water polo team would keep winning the Bill Barnett Holiday Cup until the end of time.
The Breakers came into this week’s tournament as eight-time defending Holiday Cup champions. Heading into Friday, it had been a decade and a day since they had lost a match at the tournament.
Though Laguna Beach (5-3) did not earn title No. 9 in its first tournament of the season, the Breakers saw glimpses of potential, even as they lost twice Friday.
Laguna finished fourth in the tournament, dropping a 13-12 decision to Santa Barbara San Marcos in the semifinals before falling to Surf League foe Los Alamitos, 10-8, in the third-place match.
The losses were the first for Laguna Beach at the Holiday Cup since falling to Santa Margarita on Dec. 29, 2012.
“I have a love for streaks and winning,” said Laguna Beach senior goalkeeper Lauren Schneider, a four-year starter who made a combined 13 saves in the two matches Friday. “To me, it was very important to keep it up. But I know we tried our hardest … You definitely see glimpses of the potential that we have throughout the game. My freshman year, we had that amazing team and were unstoppable, and I see glimpses of that where we’re just flowing amazingly.”
Top-seeded Orange Lutheran won the tournament for the first time, edging San Marcos 14-12 in the title match. Among other local teams in the prestigious 16-team tournament, Newport Harbor placed sixth, Corona del Mar finished ninth and Edison was 16th.
The Breakers had beaten San Marcos 10-9 on the road in their season opener Dec. 2. But the Royals turned the tables Friday, as they were the ones who earned the one-goal win behind a strong match from USC-bound senior Ava Stryker (five goals and three assists) and freshman Charlotte Raisin (two goals, two assists and four steals).
Laguna Beach fell behind 11-6 in the third quarter but rallied for four straight scores, two by Ava Knepper, to pull within a single goal.
San Marcos took a 13-11 lead on Sophia Panossian’s score with 1:22 left, but the Breakers’ Presley Jones answered with a minute remaining.
After a steal from Kara Carver, the Breakers had a chance to tie the score in the closing seconds. Senior center Charlotte Riches turned her defender, but was unable to get a shot off and the referee did not call a foul.
“It didn’t go our way,” Breakers first-year coach Claire Sonne said. “I’m always going to advocate for my players and my team, but I will also say that wasn’t the play that decided whether we won or lost that game. We had our opportunities to execute earlier on, and we didn’t.”
Knepper led the Breakers with five goals, and Jones had four, with Lauren Short scoring twice and Jordan Schneider adding a goal. In the end, the slow start was a bit too much to overcome.
“We need to turn it on from the start,” said Lauren Schneider, bound for USC. “We always have to play catch-up … I think this year, Laguna, we’re kind of soft in a sense. We need to be toughened up a bit. We just need to start [strong], and not need to warm up in the first quarter.”
The Breakers held a 6-4 halftime lead against Los Alamitos in the third-place match, but were held scoreless in the second half until a pair of goals in the final minute.
Short, a senior headed to Villanova, led with three goals, with Jones and Carver scoring twice each. Cici DeLuca scored a match-high four goals for Los Alamitos.
“Typically, we’re a team full of energy, and I think that we brought it in the morning, energy-level wise,” Sonne said. “Come the third-place game, we were a little deflated, and I think that’s something that we’ll learn from. It’s going to be part of this season. It’s going to be part of all of their water polo seasons in their whole life — your ability to bounce back from really tough losses and disappointments.”
Laguna returns to action with a nonleague road match at Foothill on Thursday at noon.
Foothill 11, Newport Harbor 5: Ryan Chalupnik led the Sailors with three goals in the Bill Barnett Holiday Cup fifth-place match.
Angie Peterson and Chloe Rizof also scored for Newport Harbor (9-2).
Chalupnik scored seven goals in Newport’s 13-8 win over Santa Margarita in a fifth-place semifinal.
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