Mesa takes charge in win

COSTA MESA — Costa Mesa High girls’ water polo player Brittany Mucha called the game the Mustangs’ ticket to the CIF playoffs.

Wednesday’s 6-3 Orange Coast League victory against Sage Hill didn’t quite get Costa Mesa in that door. But the Mustangs are knocking, determined to take one of the two spots into the CIF Southern Section Division II playoffs that the four-team league provides.

Mucha, the Mustangs’ senior goalie, played a big part in it, making 13 saves and holding a shutout until late in the third quarter.

“I don’t worry about shutouts,” she said. “I just worry about winning the game, and we did. It was very important. We’ve just been focusing in practice, and obviously it carried over into the game.”

Shyra Crandall recorded a team-high four steals playing two-meter defense. She also scored Costa Mesa’s third goal of the game on a rebound. That goal, with 3:14 left in the second quarter, gave the Mustangs a 3-0 lead that they took into halftime. Sage Hill never got closer than three goals the rest of the way.

“Coach gave us a good prep talk, and the support of the team helped me get out there and steal some balls,” Crandall said. “I was just encouraged to play really hard today because we want to make it to CIF.”

Practice might have been big for Costa Mesa (9-8, 2-0 in league). However, for Sage Hill, good practices have been a rarity lately. The Lightning (6-4, 0-2), who had Tom Norton replace Aleah Amr as coach last week, also try to get by with just nine players.

On Wednesday, that meant just two substitutes.

“It’s just something we deal with,” Sage assistant coach Dreason Barry said. “We definitely need to work on more conditioning, because they know they’re going to be playing the whole game.”

Dylan Conroy had six steals for the Lightning, and the sophomore also scored her team’s last goal of the game with 1:17 left in the fourth quarter.

Conroy and her teammates look forward to the rematch against Costa Mesa, scheduled for Jan. 31 at Corona del Mar.

“At first, we wanted to dominate them,” Conroy said. “But then the first quarter passed and it was like, ‘Let’s just play the best we can.’ We haven’t really had a good practice since Christmas break. Definitely, next time we’ll be more conditioned and play better.”

Talhia Nuñez and Ashley Rendon each scored twice for Mesa. Jordan Smith-Newman had nine saves for Sage.

Costa Mesa Coach Tim Postiff said he was happy with the play of Mucha, which led to several Mustang counterattack goals.

“The way we played defense translated into offense,” Postiff said. “We were down the pool quite a bit before them, and Brittany was making excellent outlet passes. That allowed us to get some of the shots off that we did.”

Orange Coast League

Costa Mesa 6, Sage Hill 3

Score by Quarters

Sage Hill

0

0

1

2

—

3

Costa Mesa

1

2

2

1

—

6

Sage Hill -- A. Carpenter 1, Wesley 1, Conroy 1. Saves -- Smith-Newman 9.

Costa Mesa -- Nuñez 2, Rendon 2, Dyvig 1, Crandall 1. Saves -- Mucha 13.