Girls’ Water Polo: Los Al moves ahead of Newport Harbor

Former Newport Harbor High girls’ water polo Coach Bill Barnett, who retired in February after 49 years coaching at the school, sat poolside at Newport Harbor for Thursday night’s big Sunset League game against Los Alamitos.

But the Griffins also had star power. Their alumna Rachel Fattal, a UCLA star and current U.S. senior women’s national team member, was in attendance as well.

“She just came from national team practice to sit on the bench with us,” Los Al Coach Dave Carlson said with a smile. “She was a ‘guest coach’ tonight. They had a ringer coach on deck, so we had to pull in a ringer national team assistant.”

Fattal didn’t have a lot to say, as she has been fighting sickness recently and didn’t have much of a voice. Plus, she said after the game, she wanted it to be about the current players on the team.

Some of those current players for Los Alamitos don’t have a lot of varsity experience. But they stepped up Thursday night on the big stage.

The Griffins’ defense was the difference in the battle of the Sunset League unbeatens, as Los Alamitos earned a 7-5 win that gives it the inside track on its second league title in three years.

Defending league champion Newport Harbor (7-12, 2-1 in league) has to hope that the Griffins (13-9, 3-0) lose to Huntington Beach next week to force an eventual possible three-way tie for first place. The Oilers are also 2-1 in league.

“We’re rooting for Huntington,” said Newport senior Sammie Garcia, who had two goals, an assist and a field block Thursday. “We’re hoping.”

The Sailors did not have a lot of hope on offense against Los Alamitos. Senior co-captain Abbey Blake had three goals for the Griffins. The visitors gave up just one even-strength goal to the Sailors in the second half.

They even had the louder fans at the game. Carlson said Los Alamitos varsity football and baseball players were in attendance, as well as members of the SOCAL club 18-and-under boys’ water polo team that he coaches.

As for his girls, Thursday’s win was a confidence-booster. The sister tandem of Lauren and Katie Dvonch each scored goals, as did Madison Ravelo and Calysa Toledo. Freshman goalie Tara DeBrabander made seven saves for Los Al, ranked No. 9 in CIF Southern Section Division 1.

“A lot of them are new to varsity,” said Carlson, who is back as Los Al girls’ coach this year after a one-year hiatus. “It’s good for them to see that when they play team defense like that, they can be in any game. I thought our team defense was really strong tonight. From the third period on, I was really confident that if Newport was going to score, they were going to have to score a really, really good shot. Our defense was on tonight.

“Our man-to-man defense was really good tonight, and we ran a little bit of zone and that was really good too. The girls did a good job adjusting.”

Newport Harbor, which is tied for 10th in Division 1, will have to adjust as well. The Sailors have lost four straight games, and five of their last six.

Garcia scored twice in the first quarter Thursday night for the Sailors, who took a 3-2 lead on junior Claire Tafoya’s goal from center, assisted by sophomore Jessica Lynch, with 5:21 remaining in the first half. The Sailors had two more chances moments later, but sophomore Sarah Barker’s backhand clanged off the crossbar and senior co-captain Katie Kearns’ rebound effort went off the left post.

Los Al took advantage. Lauren Dvonch scored inside, and then Blake did too, as the Griffins earned a 4-3 halftime advantage.

The Sailors got the deficit to a single goal three more times in the second half. The last came in the final moments after Barker, who was celebrating her 17th birthday on Thursday, drew a Los Alamitos offensive foul at two meters. The ball went ahead quickly to Lissa Westerman, who scored her second goal with 1:01 left to make it a 6-5 game.

Carlson called timeout. He then had DeBrabander hold the ball until 10 seconds remained on the shot clock, when she passed it ahead. With the clock about to expire, Toledo was fouled outside five meters. The junior buried the shot with 31 seconds remaining for an insurance goal.

“Calysa had the option of shooting, or putting the ball into Ravelo or putting the ball into Abbey,” Carlson said. “She chose to shoot it, and it was a good choice.”

But it was the good choices the Griffins made on defense that also made a big difference.

“We had a really, really tough time holding position anywhere,” Newport Harbor Coach Brian Melstrom said. “We were not quick to beat their double-team. We were holding the ball too long, and we weren’t finding the free girl. It was just a relentless attack on us. We knew that coming in; we just didn’t find the free girl. I credit Los Al and Coach Carlson getting those girls ready to go.”

Lynch led the Newport Harbor defensive effort with three steals, while Kearns had two. Co-captain Maddy Kanzler made nine saves.

The Sailors have another challenging game Saturday at 11 a.m., when they play host to top-ranked Orange Lutheran. That morning game will be challenging for another reason, too, as Garcia said Newport Harbor is having its winter formal dance Friday night at Knott’s Berry Farm.

“I think a lot of it just comes from self-motivation,” Garcia said of turning the recent losing streak around. “All of the seniors are excited, because we’re second-semester seniors and almost graduating. So a lot of us are motivated, because we want to end our season well. I think it’s just pushing hard at practice and paying attention, and being able to push the fourth quarter.”