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Daily Pilot High School Female Athlete of the Week: Lynch led Newport Harbor to CIF title

Newport Harbor High senior Jessica Lynch is the Daily Pilot High School Female Athlete of the Week. She scored the game-winning goal with three seconds left as the Sailors beat Santa Barbara 4-3 to win the CIF Southern Section Division 2 girls' water polo title.
(Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer)
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Jessica Lynch easily could have been a captain of the Newport Harbor High girls’ water polo team last year as a junior.

Lynch brought a lot of experience and ended up leading the team in scoring. But she was not one of the two players who her teammates voted into the captain role. Then-senior Lissa Westerman and then-junior Kaela Whelan got the nods.

Coming into this season, Newport Harbor coach Brian Melstrom left nothing to chance, naming Lynch the team captain.

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“I didn’t want it to be a popularity contest,” Melstrom said. “I felt that I needed to put the girl that I thought was most capable of leading this group of girls in charge, and that was Jessica. To this day, I hold to that decision.”

Lynch certainly was up to the challenge. She again led the Sailors in scoring, with 57 goals, as well as registering team-best totals of 33 assists and 32 steals. The last goal of Lynch’s high school career was the biggest.

She scored with three seconds left in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 title game on Feb. 24 at Irvine’s Woollett Aquatics Center, lifting No. 2-seeded Newport Harbor to a 4-3 win over No. 4 Santa Barbara.

The Sailors (18-9) had called timeout following a steal from senior Sarah Barker with 10 seconds left. Lynch took the pass from junior goalkeeper Erin Ross and buried the outside shot into the upper-right corner.

“We’ve run similar plays like that in the past, where it’s my shot at the end,” Lynch said. “I’ve never had any success the whole season with that.”

Playing in the same city where she will continue her career at UC Irvine, this time Lynch made the shot when it mattered most. She said her father, Jason Lynch, the former boys’ water polo coach at Newport Harbor from 2001-11, was proud of her.

“A lot of our conversations are based off water polo,” Jessica said of Jason, who is still a science teacher at Newport Harbor and now the men’s water polo coach at Saddleback College. “That’s one thing we share in common, so if I ever have a question, I’m never hesitant to ask him. After most of my games, he gives me little pointers of things to do better. When he gives me the pointers, I kind of have to read them as a coach giving them to me, rather than my dad.”

Jessica Lynch has played water polo since she was 7 years old, becoming more serious about the sport a couple of years later when the family moved from Mission Viejo to Newport Beach. She was a three-year starter at Newport Harbor during what could be called a tough stretch of the program’s history.

Melstrom, a longtime assistant under Bill Barnett, took over the program when Barnett, who led the Sailors to five Division 1 titles, retired in 2015. The following season, the Sailors lost at Mater Dei in the first round of the Division 1 playoffs, their first opening-round exit in program history. They did it again last year, losing to rival Corona del Mar.

“Every program has its ups and downs,” Lynch said. “We’re slowly growing, and I think winning CIF is definitely a step in the right direction. We still hold those traditions that Newport has always held.”

Lynch helped the Sailors get there. The playoff format changed this season, with only the top eight teams advancing to the Division 1 playoffs. The Sailors had an up-and-down season and were on the cusp all year, but ended up competing in Division 2 for the first time.

The road to the title wasn’t easy. Each of the Sailors’ four playoff victories was decided by three goals or less. Lynch’s goal at the end of the final was the only goal of the second half for the Sailors, though scoring was definitely not all that she brought to the pool each time she suited up.

“She did all of the little things really well – the steals, the assists, the communicating, the field blocks,” Melstrom said. “She was definitely a rock for our team. For her to cap her senior season off with a game-winning goal is really cool. There’s not a lot of people that get to experience something like that. She’s put in a lot of hard work over an extended amount of time.”

Lynch said she is undecided if she will swim for the Sailors this spring. Melstrom said he hopes she does, as she could offer valuable depth for a team that hopes to contend for a Sunset League title.

But whatever her decision there, Lynch’s legacy is secure. In team photos taken after the game against Santa Barbara, you’d better believe it was the team captain who was clutching the championship plaque with a big smile on her face.

*

Jessica Lynch

Born: Dec. 13, 1999

Hometown: Mission Viejo

Height: 5 feet 5

Sport: Water polo

Year: Senior

Coach: Brian Melstrom

Favorite food: Macaroni and cheese

Favorite movie: “The Last Song”

Favorite athletic moment: Helping the Newport Harbor High girls’ water polo team win the CIF Southern Section Division 2 title.

Week in review: Lynch scored the game-winning goal with three seconds remaining as Newport Harbor beat Santa Barbara 4-3 for the Division 2 title on Feb. 24. She also scored twice in an 8-5 victory over Santa Margarita in the semifinals on Feb. 21.

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo

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