HIGH SCHOOLS:Sailors need to forget

The Newport Harbor High girls’ water polo team (17-9) remains optimistic, despite a disappointing sixth-place finish at the Irvine Southern California Championships.

“We can’t dwell on this,” said senior Jillian Chiapuzio after the Sailors lost in the quarterfinals to Agoura on Friday night. “We’re not going to make it to the finals for this tournament, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to make it to finals for CIF.”

However, Newport’s loss to Montebello in the tournament’s fifth-place game on Saturday, 7-6, likely hurt the Sailors’ chances of moving up from the No. 4 spot in CIF Southern Section Division I. They would have liked to jump to No. 3, to avoid playing No. 1 Foothill in a possible Division I semifinal playoff matchup.

“Now, most likely, we will,” senior Sarah Roberts said. “We tried to pull through, but we sort of cracked under pressure. But that’s all right. It’s good practice.”

The sixth-place finish marks the first time Newport Harbor hasn’t finished top-three at the Southern California Championships since 2002.

Roberts said she got her nails done in the time between the Sailors’ 6-4 win over Whittier in the morning and their 7-6 loss to Montebello in the afternoon.

Van Hiel usually has a high rate of success, but it was a particularly impressive feat considering she sprinted three times in the championship against Foothill’s Noel Umphrey. The Knights senior will be attending UCLA in the fall.

“Having Heather always win the sprints, it gives us the first offensive series,” teammate Cari Levine said. “That starts the momentum of the game, which is huge.”

CdM (19-6) set a goal before the year of finishing top two in each of their three tournaments, also including the Holiday Cup and the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions. After winning the Holiday Cup and finishing second in Irvine, the Sea Kings came close to accomplishing their goal.

They finished in third place at the TOC after a wild, 8-7 sudden-death overtime loss to Foothill in the semifinals.

“We played well all weekend,” said Sarah Hutchison on Saturday after the Sea Kings finished in second place at the Southern California Championships. “We had a really good tournament as a team … We just know how each other plays and we feel comfortable. We’re definitely feeling strong going into playoffs next week.”

The Mustangs have just three seniors on the team, in Dyvig, Shyra Crandall and goalie Brittany Mucha.

However, sophomores like Liz Simpson, Andrea Beyaoju, Ashley Rendon and Brianna Williams have stepped up for Coach Tim Postiff’s club, which is in second in the Orange Coast League headed into the final week of the regular season.

“[The sophomores] don’t understand the game as well as we do, and it can be mentally dragging sometimes repeating yourself over and over again at the varsity level,” Dyvig said. “But, they’re fast swimmers. As long as they use that speed, they’re the backbone of the team.”

MATT SZABO covers high school girls’ water polo for the Daily Pilot. He can be reached at (714) 966-4614 or via e-mail at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.