HIGH SCHOOLS:Fantastic Four continue to impress

Call them the Fantastic Four.

Newport Harbor High and Corona del Mar have been surrounded in the CIF Southern Section Division I girls’ water polo rankings all year by two other teams, one in nearby Santa Ana and one that’s a bit farther north.

The top four teams in the rankings are No. 1 Foothill, No. 2 Montebello, No. 3 Corona del Mar and No. 4 Newport Harbor. Those four teams have had the top four spots all season — not necessarily in that order — and that’s probably the way it will be until the playoffs start.

Any of these teams can beat each other on any given day. CdM, Newport Harbor and Foothill all have at least one win — and at least one loss — against one of the other top three teams.

The exception is Montebello, which has lost only to Coronado at the Benson Cup tournament in December. But the Oilers have a big test today against Foothill and they are scheduled to play at CdM on Jan. 27.

Although none of the teams are in the same league, the games against one another are very important for Division I playoff positioning. Another chance to impress comes at this weekend’s Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions, in which all four teams will be competing.

Last year, Corona del Mar topped Foothill, 5-2, in the tournament championship game.

The Tournament of Champions is the second of three big area girls’ water polo tournaments. The first was the Holiday Cup, won by CdM, and the third is the Southern California Tournament, held at Irvine High on Feb. 1-3.

The four teams also made it to the semifinals of the Southern California Tournament last year, when Foothill beat CdM, 8-2, in the championship game.

Crandall attended junior high school in Costa Mesa before moving to Fountain Valley, but now she’s back as the Mustangs’ primary set defender. She had a goal and four steals in Costa Mesa’s 6-3 victory over Sage Hill on Jan. 10, which gave the Mustangs the inside track on a CIF Southern Section Division II playoff berth.

Crandall had 26 steals as a junior last year for Fountain Valley, but the Barons went just 7-19, 0-5 in the Sunset League.

Brady, a senior who has committed to San Diego State, was the MVP of this year’s Western Tournament for the tournament-champion Griffins. She came into the game against Newport averaging nearly four goals a game.

She did play good two-meter defense on Newport Harbor’s Sarah Roberts, but Brady tied a season-low with one goal in the game — on a penalty shot — as the Sailors stayed undefeated in the Sunset League.

Los Alamitos Coach Dave Carlson said Brady had some good shots, but credited Newport Harbor goalie Morgan Vickers and some nice Sailors field blocks.

It didn’t show at the Pan Pacific Invitational Water Polo Cup, where the Newport Harbor High junior helped lead the USA youth division team to a second-place finish in the junior division at the Talisman Center in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Jorth and his teammates, playing up a division, were in first-place after three days of preliminary play, going 5-0-1. They eventually lost to the Canada Red team, 13-12, in the championship game on Dec. 31.

“I think a lot of us are out of shape because we haven’t played high school water polo since November,” said Jorth, 16, who scored a goal in the championship game. “But we still played pretty well, for not having played for awhile and not having any training beforehand. I had a really good time hanging out with a lot of the kids around the country, representing the USA.”