CdM, Newport advance in girls’ water polo
CdM, Newport advance to semis
Sea Kings outlast Orange Lutheran, will play top-ranked Laguna in TOC semis. Newport to face Foothill for second time.
SANTA BARBARA --- On Friday morning, before the grind of the prestigious Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions set in, the Corona del Mar High girls’ water polo team walked on the beach.
The Sea Kings enjoyed their time on the sand near UC Santa Barbara, Coach Ross Sinclair’s alma mater.
“We were on the edge of a cliff, kind of,” CdM junior co-captain Maddie Musselman said. “It was fun. It sounds bad, but it was like five feet [high]. I could have jumped down.”
The Sea Kings hope to reach a higher pinnacle this year by the time the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs roll around.
On Saturday, they play the benchmark.
Musselman had a team-high three goals as the Sea Kings beat Orange Lutheran, 10-7, in a Tournament of Champions quarterfinal game Friday night at Santa Barbara High. CdM (9-3) will face top-seeded defending tournament champion Laguna Beach in the semifinals Saturday at 11:10 a.m. at Dos Pueblos High in Goleta.
Newport Harbor (11-3) also made the tournament semifinals after defeating San Clemente, 9-2, in another quarterfinal Friday at Dos Pueblos. The Sailors will face No. 2-seeded Foothill in the second semifinal at 12:15 p.m. Saturday. The championship game is scheduled for 4:35 p.m.
The opportunity to play a team like Laguna Beach, which comes into Saturday’s semifinal with a 35-game winning streak, is obvious for CdM. The Sea Kings have shown improvement since losing a pair of overtime games in the Holiday Cup, to Foothill and Newport Harbor, to finish fourth.
“The last two weeks we’ve been working on the little things,” said senior co-captain Eliza Britt, who had two goals and two steals against Orange Lutheran. “Obviously, it was the little things that lost us those two games, they were both overtime and losing by one. We’re so close to being top two [in CIF Southern Section Division 1], and it’s a big difference from being ranked fourth. We’re definitely working on the little things, and hopefully that will carry us through.”
The Sea Kings got a team effort against the Lancers. Senior center Kaybree Albright and senior Shannon Frome each scored two goals, and Heidi Ritner made five saves. Bridgett Storm drew two exclusions for CdM, which went four for six on the power play.
The game was tight early, but CdM built a third-quarter lead partly due to the play of sophomore Jaleh Moaddeli. She had a huge field block in a four-on-six situation. Then, at the third quarter buzzer, Moaddeli scored on a lob from about seven meters to give the Sea Kings a 10-6 lead.
“She saved us,” Musselman said. “She’s always one of those people that can shot block. We always know that she can step up in a position when we need her, so it was really nice to know that she was there to stuff a girl. She’s building confidence right now.”
So are the Sea Kings, who now face Laguna Beach for the first time this season.
“We’re just becoming closer as a team,” Sinclair said. “We’re starting to work for each other. People are doing a great job of being great teammates and being coachable. I think that when that happens with this team, the sky’s the limit … We’ve got our work cut out for us [against Laguna], but these girls are excited.”
Musselman had five goals for CdM in an 11-4 win over Royal of Simi Valley in a first-round game. Britt, Frome, Moaddeli, Sami Pratt, Averi Westerman and Grace Morgan (five steals) scored one goal each.
Newport Harbor, meanwhile, made the tournament semifinals with a dominant defensive effort against San Clemente, the top-ranked team in Division 2, and its junior center Amber McCutcheon.
“Our defense pretty much rotated around their center,” Newport senior captain Kate Pipkin said in a phone interview. “She’s a powerhouse, a really good shooter … [but] I feel like we connected at the same level [as a team].”
Goalie Carlee Kapana, who Pipkin said was battling sickness earlier in the day, made 12 saves and had three assists against San Clemente. Isabel Leveque scored three goals, while Chanel Schilling and Pipkin scored twice. Ellie Reid and Sammie Garcia also scored.
The Sailors opened their tournament with a 12-4 win over Agoura. Rachel Whitelegge scored four goals, Schilling had three and Leveque scored twice. Emma Erickson, Pipkin and Garcia each had one goal, and Kapana made 12 saves.
Now, Newport Harbor will play Foothill for the second time this season. The Knights earned a 4-2 nonleague victory on Dec. 12.
“It’s going to be a good game, that’s for sure,” Pipkin said. “They’re fast and they’re smart, and they have a lot of good players. It’s going to be a hard fight to the finish.”
