Third place is good enough to qualify

The Laguna Beach 16-and-under girls’ water polo team earned a third-place finish last weekend at the Southern Pacific Regional Junior Olympics qualifying tournament at Lake Elsinore.

The tournament concluded Sunday at Lakeside High.

By placing third, Laguna advances as a seeded team to the National Junior Olympics tournament, which will be held in early August. The team accomplished the feat with a 10-player roster, trained just one day a week, and was the lowest-seeded team in the last bracket and played 8:45 a.m. games both Saturday and Sunday. To top it off, most of the girls were on the brink of final exams that began this week.

Laguna began the tourney Saturday by easily defeating a Regency team featuring mostly Mater Dei High prospects, 11-2. Following a lengthy break, Laguna returned to the pool later that day to dismantle Riverside, 16-0, a win that advanced the locals as the top seed out of their pod.

In its third contest Saturday, Laguna defeated a team from the Cal Baptist University age group program, 12-2. That set up a meeting against the undefeated and top-seeded team from SET “” featuring Saddleback and El Toro High athletes “” early Sunday. Laguna, under the guidance of Stan Sprague, came ready to play Sunday.

Melena Masson scored early in the first quarter and Jesse Holechek scored on another outside shot to put Laguna up 2-0. Laguna never trailed in the opening period and goals by Riley Duncan, Holechek and Jessica Shusko, the latter scoring from far down pool, pushed Laguna into a 5-3 lead at the end of the quarter.

Laguna also controlled the second quarter. Yoshi Andersen scored on a step-out shot early in the period, Duncan drew a five-meter after taking an over-the-top lob pass, and Holechek converted as Laguna built a 7-3 halftime advantage. In the third quarter, SET scored immediately to cut the deficit to, 7-4, but then Hayley Kunert sent a pass to Anderson, who drew another five-meter call and Holechek did the scoring honors to put the score at 8-4. Edy Manetta of SET scored before the quarter was over to trim the lead to 8-5.

SET also made a big push in the fourth quarter but Laguna’s defense held firm. Manetta made two quality saves and also had a steal, Shusko and Masson continued to shut down the middle with help defense from Lida De Groote, Kaitlyn Waidley and Katie Stewart. SET was able to score twice in the quarter, its final goal posted with the clock winding down, but Laguna came away with an 8-7 victory that guaranteed the squad a top three finish in the tournament and a qualifying seed in the upcoming Junior Olympics tournament.

In its second game Sunday, Laguna fell behind Los Alamitos by a 2-0 score. Anderson scored a goal and Manetta made a big save to keep Laguna within 2-1 after one quarter. The two long-time rivals played a scoreless second quarter but Los Alamitos scored on a lob early in the third and then again with an extra attacker after a kick out. Laguna couldn’t overcome Los Al’s press defense and suffered its first loss of the tournament, 5-1.

In its final tournament game Sunday, Laguna jumped out to a 4-1 lead on Newport behind two goals from Holechek and one each from Kunert and Shusko. Manetta contributed several big saves. Newport, however, scored the next three goals to tie the game at 4 midway through the third quarter. Masson, off a pass from Holechek, drew a five-meter call, and Holechek found the back of the net with the free toss for 5-4 Laguna lead.

Early in period four, Anderson went cross cage, top corner for a score to boost Laguna into a two-goal lead (6-4). But Newport went on to score on a skip shot and then on a lob with a six-on-five advantage to tie the score at 6 with less than two minutes to play. Another score on a lob shot gave Newport its first lead of the game at 7-6. Laguna missed out on a player-up situation and then had a shot hit post on a two-on-one break as time expired.

Los Alamitos went on to take first place by defeating Newport, 6-1.