Back Bay rivals to meet

IRVINE — Somebody forgot to tell the CdM Aquatics 18-and-under girls’ water polo team that it is young and relatively inexperienced and has a new coach.

The success of No. 19-seeded CdM has been one of the more interesting stories of the first two days at the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics. A 3-2 shootout loss to No. 8 Diablo on Friday night at UC Irvine, after the teams played through regulation tied 5-5, did nothing to change that.

What it did, however, was set up the only Battle of the Bay match of the summer.

CdM will play the Newport Water Polo Foundation 18U girls in a game Saturday at noon at Capistrano Valley High. Both teams have now earned places somewhere from 13th to 20th in the nation at the top club tournament, which runs through Sunday.

CdM Coach Kevin Ricks said his team has scrimmaged Newport a couple of times this summer. He knows what to expect in his first Battle of the Bay game.

“It’s a tremendous rivalry and tradition,” Ricks said. “I know that Newport’s going to show up [Saturday] and play with a lot of energy and passion, and I know the same thing’s going to come from our team.”

Ricks’ club was actually oh-so-close to finishing top-12. To do so, CdM needed to beat Diablo, which featured eight players who have already graduated high school.

CdM led for much of the game, despite incoming senior center Bridgett Storm picking up two early fouls in the first four minutes of the contest. CdM stayed in the game, trailing just 3-2 at halftime.

“In that group, we don’t really have a secondary center,” Ricks said. “That’s a big challenge. To play water polo against a team like that with no center is difficult, but the kids go in there and they fight for position. It doesn’t always turn into a goal, but they do a really good job of understanding what we need to have happen, and doing it.”

Storm made amends when she came back into the game in the second half. Her power-play goal from five meters tied the score at 3-3 in the third quarter. A minute later, Sarah Lawson scored her own power-play strike to give CdM the lead. Kelly Morgan had the assist.

CdM even took a 5-4 advantage late in the quarter on a heady play from Jaleh Moadelli, who stole the ball in the back-court, caused the Diablo goalie to be excluded and scored. Soon after, there was a lengthy delay as the scoreboard went out.

CdM played hard in the fourth quarter but couldn’t score, while Diablo’s lefty Sofia Carrera-Justiz made the equalizer with 3:03 left.

CdM’s Storm and Emily Ritner scored in the shootout, but one shot skipped wide right and Diablo goalie Paige Miller made two saves to win it for her team.

Incoming senior Heidi Ritner made 11 saves in regulation and one in the shootout for CdM, which also got two goals and two steals from rising incoming sophomore Chloe Harbilas.

CdM also pulled off an upset in its first game of the day, topping Stanford A, 7-5. The locals then beat Rose Bowl B, 9-6, to win their three-team platinum pool.

Moaddeli had three goals and three steals against Rose Bowl, while Harbilas had two goals and three steals and Storm also scored twice. Tia DiGiovanni and Abigail Klein combined for three assists and two steals, while Heidi Ritner made six saves, including one on a penalty.

“We had a tough first day with three games, and then to come back and have three more today, that’s a lot of water polo in two days,” Ricks said. “The girls played really well today. Stanford’s a program that has a great tradition, and they have a bunch of kids that are going off to college. Diablo, the same sort of thing, they have a lot of veteran athletes.

“To put ourselves in the position we did was awesome. An outstanding day for the girls. They played really, really well.”

Newport, meanwhile, split its two games Friday to finish second in its platinum bracket pool. Newport lost to Foothill A, 11-5, before getting past Northern Illinois Polo Club, 6-4.

Sammie Garcia had three goals against Foothill, while Katie Kearns had a goal, a steal and two field blocks. Claire Tafoya scored once, and Lissa Westerman had three steals.

Newport started slowly against NIPC, falling in a 3-0 hole before rallying behind three goals from Kearns to tie the score at 3-3 by halftime.

Garcia scored in transition early in the third to give Newport its first lead, before Westerman and Kaela Whelan (power play) scored as Newport began to pull away.

Kearns led the way with three goals, two steals and an assist, while Sarah Barker had four steals and center Josie Miller drew four exclusions at center.

“She’s been working really hard this summer,” Newport Coach Brian Melstrom said of Miller. “I’m really proud of what she’s done. She’s a strength at defender, and a strength at set also. She can get girls behind her and hold set. When she starts to finish the ball a little bit more, when we can get some goals out of her, then she’ll become the full package.”

Maddy Kanzler had three saves and an assist in goal in the first half, while Chloe Schilling added six saves in the second half against NIPC. Melstrom has had the two goalies splitting time all tournament.

“That was my biggest fear, the goalie position, but they’ve really stepped up, both of them,” he said. “I can’t tell you which one’s better. I think they complement each other well.”

So do CdM and Newport, as the Back Bay rivals always seem to meet up in a tournament. The 18-and-under teams met up last year at Junior Olympics in the Bay Area, and Newport won. Then, in the high school season last winter, the Sailors won all three games against the Sea Kings, all by a single goal.

As for Saturday’s Battle of the Bay, Melstrom knows what to expect.

“It’s always close, I know that,” he said. “There’s never a real blowout CdM-Newport game … It’s always a tough game, it’s always physical, so I expect that.”