Youth polo team tunes up

Playing its final tuneup before heading today for Missouri, the Laguna Beach Age Group Water Polo girls’ 14-and-under team edged the North San Diego Stars, 5-4, at the USA Water Polo National training facility in Los Alamitos.

The exhibition match was part of a weekend of festivities at the Speedo Top 40 event.

In the 5-4 victory, Edy Manetta stopped a skip shot at point-blank range on the Stars’ opening possession of the match and neither team was able to score in the opening quarter.

Early in the second quarter, Jessica Shusko’s individual effort in front of the Stars goal led to a five-meter call. Candyce Schroeder took the scoring honors to give Laguna a 1-0 lead.

Manetta then made another nice save on a lob shot but the Stars were able to go into halftime tied at 1-1 after scoring on a step-out shot.

At the outset of the third quarter, Shusko drew a foul call in hole set. Her quick free pass to Jessie Holechek was then sent off to a wide-open Schroeder who planted the go-ahead score as Laguna took a 2-1 lead. It didn’t last long, though, as the Stars scored on a long shot a minute after Schroeder’s goal, knotting the score again with under two minutes left in the quarter.

The Stars struck again after Laguna lost a scramble for the ball to take their first lead, 3-2. But a one-two punch by Laguna down the stretch of the quarter, with Schroeder scoring off a double-assist from Shusko and Lauren Hampton with 40 seconds left to tie the score and a goal by Hampton off a feed from Riley Duncan just before the buzzer, allowed Laguna to take a 4-3 lead into the final quarter.

The passing combination of Melena Masson-to Duncan-to Yoshi Andersen on the perimeter created room for Schroeder in hole set, and an Andersen feed to Schroeder led to Laguna’s final goal and a 5-3 advantage.

The Stars scored one final time but Laguna protected that lead to preserve the victory.