Laguna goes one-up

Taking on competition an age-group above it, the Laguna Beach girls’ 14-and-Under water polo team held its own in a round-robin event last weekend at Capistrano Valley High.

The Laguna girls, composed mainly of seventh-graders ages 12 and 13, took on high school-aged teams from Golden Triangle (San Diego), host Capistrano Valley and Dana Hills.

Not only did Laguna hold their own against the competition ? they won all three of their matches.

In its first match, against Golden Triangle, Laguna scored the first three goals and burned the net for a total of seven in the opening quarter, en route to an easy 14-4 victory.

In racing to a 7-1 lead in the first quarter, Riley Duncan posted three goals, Jessi Holechek scored twice and Jessica Shusko and Melina Masson each scored once.

Shusko and Holechek each would later score two more goals, and Lauren Hampton, Yoshi Andersen and Candyce Schroeder also would get into the scoring act.

Laguna then took on host Capo Valley in its second match, where defense and counter-attacking keyed a 7-0 shutout.

Laguna’s defense thwarted the hole set-oriented offense of Capo Valley early in the match, with Shusko and Masson forcing the opposition away from the two-meter line. On a counter attack after a shot clock violation, Duncan set up Schroeder for an easy score, and Laguna had a 1-0 lead.

Near the end of the first quarter, Holechek drew a five-meter shot and Kelsey Thorton threw a bullet into the back of the net for a 2-0 margin.

Laguna maintained that two-goal advantage in the second quarter, with goalkeeper Edy Manetta making two key steals to keep Capo Valley off the scoreboard. A steal-and-sprint up-pool by Masson led to a pass to Hampton, and she set up Schroeder for the third goal to make it 3-0. It became 4-0 at the half after Holechek drew a kick-out, and after some sharp perimeter passing led to a goal by Andersen.

Second-half goals were scored by Thorton, Schroder and Holechek as Laguna completed the one-sided win.

In its final contest, Laguna used a balanced attack at both ends of the pool to roll past Dana Hills, 10-1. Key contributions came from Kaitlyn Waidley and Gina Rogers. Manetta stepped out of her role as keeper to score two goals on offense.

Thorton and Masson also scored two goals apiece and Duncan, Andersen, Schroeder and Holechek also scored.

Several members of the Laguna team will attend a four-day water polo camp at Cal State Long Beach that begins Saturday.

They will return to match action the weekend of June 23-24 and conclude their summer with an appearance at the national Junior Olympics in early August.