Balanced CdM bowls over Arlington

Richard Dunn

With four returning first-team All-CIF Southern Section Division

IV players in the pool, including two already signed with Stanford

and UCLA, it would appear on the surface that goal scoring on the

Corona del Mar High girls water polo team comes from only a select

few.

The Sea Kings, however, are into sharing the wealth.

CdM, which has moved up to CIF Division II this year after winning

the school’s first CIF title in the sport in Division IV, opened its

season Wednesday against defending CIF Division V champion Arlington

of Riverside, because second-year CdM Coach Aaron Chaney wants

challenging, and different, competition in December.

But from the start, the Sea Kings created a gap between themselves

and the visiting Lions as CdM, ranked No. 4 in Orange County, earned

a 13-2 nonleague win.

“We’ve just been working on defense and fundamentals the last

three weeks, mostly individual skill drills, so we have not done a

lot of team strategy things,” said Chaney, whose team was sharp from

the outset, creating several Arlington turnovers with solid defense

and scoring from all reaches of the pool as the Sea Kings built a 6-0

lead after the first quarter and a 10-0 advantage in the third.

While Stanford-bound Christina Hewko and UCLA-bound Brittney

Bowlus put an charge into the CdM defense, six different players

scored Corona del Mar’s first eight goals.

“We have about eight girls who can score,” Chaney said. “Last

year, we had a real balanced scoring attack, and I feel this year

will be the same.”

Senior Daniela DiGiacomo, a first-team All-CIF choice last season

along with senior teammates Hewko, Bowlus and Danielle Carlson,

scored the last two goals for CdM in the first quarter, the only two

of the team’s initial eight that came from the same player.

Bowlus scored from set 47 seconds into the game, then Hewko,

junior Vivian Liao and junior Katya Eadington added goals in the

opening five minutes, before DiGiacomo scored on a rebound with 1:21

left and on the counterattack with 0:17 to play as the hosts amassed

a 6-0 lead by first quarter’s end.

Three of Corona del Mar’s first four shots in the second quarter

hit the post or crossbar, but Bowlus finally rang the bell for the

Sea Kings with a backhand shot from two meters with 3:35 on the clock

-- the lone second-quarter goal. That’s also when Chaney pulled his

starters.

“I thought they played really good defense and countered really

well,” Chaney said. “We got some good steals on defense.”

In addition to Bowlus, Hewko, Carlson and DiGiacomo, junior Amy

Strack, freshman Camille Hewko and junior Natalie Wayte recorded

steals for the Sea Kings, who outscored Arlington, 4-1, in the third

quarter to take a commanding 11-1 lead.

Carlson scored a player-advantage goal on a shot to the right edge

of the cage with 4:49 on the clock, then scored on a lob from two

meters on a long pass from Eadington with 3:06 remaining. Camille

Hewko scored on the power play with 2:15 left to give CdM a 10-0

lead.

Arlington scored its first goal with 1:47 left in the third, when

a shot barely slipped through the hands of CdM sophomore goalie

Brittany Fullen, who finished with 14 saves. In the fourth quarter,

Fullen stopped five of Arlington’s seven shots.

Christina Hewko scored on a penalty shot 22 seconds into the

fourth, then Carlson netted her team-leading third goal on the

counterattack with 3:40 to play.

NONLEAGUE

CdM 13, Arlington 2

Score by Quarters

Arlington 0 0 1

1 -- 2

CdM 6 1 4 2

-- 13

Arlington -- Mussenden 1, McCarthy 1. Saves -- Williams

8.

CdM -- Carlson 3, Bowlus 2, DiGiacomo 2, Ca. Hewko 2,

Ch. Hewko 2, Eadington 1, Liao 1. Saves -- Fullen 14.