Girls’ Water Polo: Laguna plays like a top seed
The Laguna Beach girls’ water polo team took its first sprint toward repeating as champion of CIF Southern Section Division 1 Wednesday.
Laguna, the top-seed in the tournament and favorite to again take the crown, took care of its first postseason challenger when the Breakers disposed of visiting Villa Park, 24-4.
The win puts the Breakers into the division quarterfinal round Saturday where they will take on eighth-ranked Los Alamitos at 12:30 p.m. at Newport Harbor High.
Orange Coast League champion Laguna stretched its season record to 28-0 and its win streak to 49 games spanning two seasons by dominating Villa Park, the second-place team from the Crestview League. The Breakers bolted to a 10-1 lead after one quarter and held a 14-3 edge at halftime.
The Breakers went on to shut out the Spartans (23-7) in the fourth quarter.
Twelve Breakers scored and eight players had multiple goals.
Makenzie Fischer led the way with four goals, Mia Salvini and Aria Fischer both scored three goals, and Bella Baldridge, Evan Tingler, Brighid Burnes and Delaney Gendron each scored twice. Single goals were scored by Taylor Julson, Sophia Lucas, Haley Evans and Isabel Riches.
“It’s been a week-and-a-half since we had a meaningful game, so it was good to see the girls fired up to show their best in our first CIF game,” Laguna Coach Ethan Damato said. “I thought we looked very sharp on both ends of the pool.
“We stressed the importance of intensity on the defensive end no matter what the score was, and I really thought the girls accepted the challenge. We played tenacious defense for four quarters, forced turnovers and got out on the counter as we always do. I also thought our passing and overall shot selection were really good.”
The next test for the Breakers is Los Alamitos. The Griffins (21-8) are the second-place team from the Sunset League and advanced in postseason play by edging seventh-ranked Dos Pueblos, 9-8, in another first-round game Wednesday.
Damato said the Griffins were one of two Division 1 top 10 teams the Breakers did not face during the regular season.
“Los Alamitos is a storied program with a great tradition of winning and playing a good brand of water polo as a team,” he said. “They have a couple really good shooters, a good center and we will need to be focused on taking those players away.
“Our division is so deep this year, each round just gets that much tougher.”
Eight teams remain in the hunt for the Division 1 title. Winners from Saturday’s four quarterfinal games advance to the semifinal round next Wednesday at the Woollett Aquatics Center in Irvine.
The winners of the Laguna-Los Alamitos and No. 5 Orange Lutheran-No. 4 Corona del Mar games will play the semifinal nightcap at 7 p.m. The winners of Saturday’s No. 6 San Marcos-No. 3 Newport Harbor and No. 9 Mater Dei-No. 2 Foothill games, will play the semifinal opener at 5 p.m. Wednesday
The championship game is Feb. 28 at Woollett.
“This year’s top eight are really good,” Damato said. “With the Trinity League moving into our division, the overall depth has really increased. There should be some great games Saturday.”
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Twitter: @MikeSciacca