Breakers mightier than the Spartans

A week after nearly upsetting Foothill, the top-ranked team in Division I, the Laguna Beach girls’ water polo team gained plenty of satisfaction by winning the Villa Park Classic Saturday.

Just as it had against Foothill, Laguna, ranked No. 2 in Division II, had to go overtime against Villa Park, preseason No. 1 in Division II. But unlike the one-goal loss to the Knights on Dec. 4, the Breakers emerged victorious against the host Spartans, winning 11-10.

A shot by Annika Dries, the tournament’s MVP, with just under 10 seconds remaining in regulation, tied the score and sent the match into overtime. There, Natasha Schulman scored twice to help Laguna secure the win.

It was the first loss of the season for Villa Park.

Laguna finished third in last year’s event.

“I thought the girls played very well and did a great job of finishing strong in some very tough matches,” Laguna co-head coach Chad Beeler said. “I even thought we could have played better than we did, but this team showed moments of awesome play.

“For instance, we were down a goal in the second quarter against Villa Park but came on strong to go up by four goals before the half. That proved to me that we can and should do that, in any match. The girls have a lot of talent and can play with anyone.”

The Breakers matched talent against some highly successful programs in a highly-competitive, 32-team tournament where they finished with a 5-0 record.

In Saturday’s final, Dries had three goals and two assists, Schulman scored three goals and had one assist, Taylor Dodson scored twice and had five assists and three steals, Jessica Holechek had a goal and four steals, Jessica Shusko and Lexy Ross each had a goal and Sarah Zuziak registered three saves and had two steals.

Schulman and Dodson were named to the all-tournament team.

En route to winning the title, Laguna survived several close matches but did open play with easy wins over the Villa Park “B” team and Huntington Beach. Then came a string of tight games that saw the Breakers defeat Los Alamitos (8-7) in overtime in the quarterfinal round, Whittier (6-5) in the semifinals before the overtime triumph over Villa Park.

In addition to Villa Park’s top preseason ranking in the Division II poll, Los Alamitos is ranked sixth in Division I and Whittier is the top-ranked team in Division III.

“The girls did a great job in finding a way to score, finding a way to make key stops and then put the game away in each of those tight games,” Beeler said. “That was great to see.”

Laguna continued its hot play Tuesday when it handed visiting Edison a 15-4 defeat in nonleague play.

Dodson led the Breakers in scoring with four goals and also contributed two assists and two steals.

“Taylor had a phenomenal tee shot in the game and gave a real good overall performance,” Beeler said of Dodson.

Schulman finished with three goals and four assists, Dries had three goals and two assists, Ross had three goals and three steals and Holechek had a goal and pair of steals.

Zuziak had four saves.

“We had a great win against Edison and played very well as a team,” Beeler said.

Laguna next will play Agoura at 4:15 p.m. Thursday at the Laguna pool.

The teams met three times last year, the last time coming in the Division II championship game last February.

Agoura won that match.

“They lost a lot of players and don’t look as strong as last year’s team, but they have a great coach and they will be a threat again this year,” Beeler said. “We’re looking forward to the matchup.”

Laguna also sent a “B” team to the Los Alamitos Tournament last weekend and the squad, composed of freshman and one sophomore player, earned a fifth-place finish, Beeler said.