A good SET up for locals

“I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello” – The Beatles

The summer before heading off to college can be an exciting one, full of opportunity. That certainly seems to be true for Corona del Mar High graduates Eliza Britt, Grace Morgan and Kaybree Albright, as well as Newport Harbor graduates Rachel Whitelegge and Kate Pipkin.

All five members of the quintet will play college water polo after helping the Sea Kings and Sailors, respectively, both make the CIF Southern Section Division 1 semifinals last February. Britt is headed to Princeton, Morgan to Cal, Whitelegge to UCLA and Albright and Pipkin both to Indiana.

“We’re roomed right next to each other,” Albright said of her growing friendship with Pipkin. “There will definitely be Nerf gun battles, for sure.”

But before heading back east, up north or even just up the 405 Freeway, the five players had to make a choice this spring and summer. Since they have aged out of the CdM Aquatics and Newport Water Polo Foundation club programs, they had to figure out where they were going to play club water polo.

They said hello to SET Water Polo Club.

“We all kind of decided to go somewhere together,” Britt said. “We’ve all been friends throughout the past four years, so we might as well go make the club the strongest that we could. We’re also pretty good friends with the Laguna girls, and they were at SET.”

Whitelegge and Pipkin are playing for the SET A team, which is seeded fifth in the 18-and-under championship division for Session Two of the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics, which begins Thursday. Britt, Morgan and Albright are competing for SET Grey “B,” which is seeded 13th. CdM graduate Sami Pratt also has been playing for SET, but will not play in Junior Olympics as she is attending her freshman orientation at the University of Michigan.

Other Newport Harbor graduates have gone elsewhere. Chanel Schilling is playing for SOCAL, while Isabelle Leveque and Kate Yasko are suiting up for Huntington Beach Water Polo Club.

The SET A team, coached by club director Brad Schumacher, definitely is a title contender at JOs. It features plenty of Laguna Beach High standouts, including players like goalie Holly Parker, Aria Fischer, Haley Evans, Mia Salvini, Natalie Selin and Bella Baldridge. These are players who have helped the Breakers earn back-to-back Division 1 titles. They ended last high school season with an Orange County-record 52-game winning streak.

“You know they’re good players, but when you play with them, you understand the talent that they do have on a different level,” Pipkin said.

SET A finished second in the Junior Olympics qualifying from the Southern Pacific Zone, losing to SOCAL Black in a shootout in the first-place match. SET Grey qualified seventh, ahead of CdM in eighth and Newport in ninth. All four teams with local players qualified for the championship division by finishing top nine.

Of course, playing for a different club can create interesting situations. SET Grey played CdM in the seventh-place game at Junior Olympics qualifying, and narrowly won in a shootout.

“It was kind of bittersweet,” Albright said. “Them being competitive and stuff, that’s good for them.

“But also, we wanted to beat them,” she added with a laugh.

CdM and Newport’s 18-and-under teams use Junior Olympics as preparation for the upcoming high school season, sometimes optimistically aiming for a top-10 finish. Yet, at SET, there is pressure to win. The club is extremely deep, and is fielding three teams in the 18U girls’ age group.

The SET Grey team, coached by Kelsey Suggs, also features players like former Coronado standout Cassidy Wiley (headed to Stanford), Taylor Julson of Laguna Beach (Long Beach State) and Maddie Baba of Dana Hills (University of Hawaii).

“It’s definitely a different experience,” Britt said. “I think it’s definitely more similar to playing at college level. We’re not going to go in there next year and have to play a whole game, we’re not going to be going there to learn basics. It’s really high-level.”

Added Pipkin: “You get two minutes, and you have to make it count if you want to keep playing.”

SET A will get competition for the title, for sure. The top four seeds are Santa Barbara 805, San Diego Shores, 680 Red and SOCAL Black.

However, there are no guarantees at the top level. Two years ago, CdM graduates Cassidy Papa (Stanford), Stephania and Ioanna Haralabidis (USC), as well as Newport’s Elissia Schilling (UCLA) and Avery Peterson (USC), all played for SOCAL at Junior Olympics. That team was also a definite title contender, yet finished fourth. Santa Barbara, featuring Newport graduate Carly Christian (UCSB), won the title.

“I think it’s really evenly spread, the talent among the teams,” Whitelegge said. “I don’t think there is a favorite. If there was, I personally have to say it’d be Santa Barbara, but everything’s been close.”

SET A will aim to be in the tournament gold-medal match, which is scheduled for 4:45 p.m. Sunday at Irvine’s Woollett Aquatics Center. But regardless of how things shake out, all five CdM and Newport Harbor graduates agree that their experience has been rewarding.

“It’s just really fun to be with a new group of people,” Pipkin said. “We had our fair share of good times with Newport and CdM, but it’s just another chapter in all of our lives that we have to push off into. I think it’s been a good experience so far. I’m hoping that it’s going to be even better this coming week.”