Missed opportunities

Mike Sciacca

It was the first quarter, plain and simple.

Call it jitters. Butterflies. Nerves.

But whatever it was, in those first few minutes of Wednesday’s

Pacific Coast League girls’ water polo match between Corona del Mar

and Laguna Beach that would determine the league champion, it cost

the host Breakers dearly.

Playing before a packed pool, Corona del Mar, ranked No. 1 in

CIF-Southern Section Division II, jumped out to a 4-0 lead after one

quarter, then was played evenly the remainder of the match by No. 2

Laguna, yet still went on to record a 7-3 victory.

Laguna, which missed out on several key opportunities in the

match, will take the No. 2 seed from the league into next week’s

playoffs.

The loss snapped a nine game win streak by the Breakers, whose

last loss, ironically, came at the hand of the Sea Kings at the Santa

Barbara Tournament.

The start to Wednesday’s match was very similar to Laguna’s start

in that first meeting in early January, as Corona del Mar jumped out

to an early lead in that tournament game, and maintained that

advantage through the rest of the match.

“No. 1 vs. No. 2 in the Pacific Coast, No. 1 vs. No. 2 in Division

II, it’s the stuff great games are made of,” Laguna coach Rick McKee

said. “We threw our best at them and Corona responded. This was a

tough lose because we played with them in every part of the game

except putting the ball away.”

The Breakers indeed had their chances, but were only three of 29

shooting.

In addition, Sea Kings’ goalie Brittany Fullen came up with 16

saves, including two stops on penalty shot attempts.

“Our game plan was to play tenacious, hard defense and allow our

offense to flow from that,” McKee said. “For the most part we did it

very well, but as we worked the ball down to CdM’s end of the pool,

we were not able to score.”

Yet Laguna was still in the match by halftime, as the Breakers

shaved that 4-0 deficit in half, getting a pair of goals from senior

Addison Doud to narrow the gap to 4-2.

Doud, in fact, scored all three goals.

Her final score came with 48 seconds left in the match, which

ended a three goal run by the Sea Kings in the second half, one that

took them to a 7-2 advantage.

Laguna still will enter next week’s CIF playoffs as the division’s

No. 2 team. The Breakers will open postseason play on Feb. 18. The

opponent and match site will be revealed this weekend at the CIF

selections meeting at the Southern Section office in Los Alamitos.

The division final is scheduled for Monday, March 28, at Belmont

Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

“Hopefully, we will get another shot at CdM in the finals at

Belmont Plaza,” McKee said.