CdM shuts door on Tars

CORONA DEL MAR — The Corona del Mar High girls’ water polo team crashed into set at every opportunity Friday, taking away scoring chances from Back Bay rival Newport Harbor.

This time, it wasn’t a crash-and-burn situation for the Sea Kings.

CdM’s stifling defense held the Sailors scoreless into the first three quarters. The Sea Kings were on the way to a 6-3 victory in a rematch of last year’s CIF Southern Section Division I championship game, but the game at CdM wasn’t without its nervous moments.

Both teams remember it well, how Newport Harbor rallied from three goals down in the fourth quarter last February to win the CIF title in overtime. So when the Sailors scored two quick goals in the fourth quarter Friday, cutting a 4-0 CdM lead in half, there was an unmistakable feeling of déjà vu.

But high school water polo, like many sports, can work in cycles. This year, the Sea Kings (5-0) are the more experienced team. They had an answer, as senior Victoria Kennedy immediately scored from set and junior Victoria Kent added her second goal on a lob shot from the left.

“We did not want this to end up like CIF last year,” said CdM senior Leslee Kaczmarek, who had a goal and a steal. “That is not what we wanted. Everyone was yelling at each other [after Newport Harbor scored back-to-back goals]. We don’t want to be known as a team that comes out hard the first three quarters and then relaxes the last quarter, because that’s when it all goes down the drain.

“We just needed to keep pushing our defense harder.”

That’s what the Sea Kings, ranked No. 2 in the Division I preseason coaches’ poll, did for most of the game. No. 1-ranked Newport Harbor (1-2) does have a pair of talented two-meter players in senior Nicolina McCall, bound for USC, and junior Kaleigh Gilchrist. But neither was able to get much thanks to the CdM crash, which was different than the Sailors’ defensive strategy of constantly pressing.

“They crashed hard a lot,” Gilchrist said. “I don’t think our two-meter girls were ready to do something with the ball. It took us a while to figure out that they were crashing. In the fourth quarter, I think we caught on, but it was a little too late.”

CdM got started early. Kent scored the game’s first goal, a power-play strike in the first quarter on a pass from junior Margot Money. Kaczmarek scored early in the second, and CdM senior Heather Van Hiel (four steals) added another goal on a cross-pool lob shot that hit off the inside-left post and trickled in.

Sea Kings senior Kate Berry skipped in a shot with three seconds left in the half, and CdM was cruising, 4-0.

“We prepared so much,” Kent said. “Newport’s such a hard team to play, so we knew we couldn’t come out weak. We came out with everything we had. We know how hard they press, so we knew that we had to swim. We kind of had trouble swimming, but we just kept going and never let up.”

Both teams went scoreless in the third quarter, before the Sailors began their rally. McCall scored on a breakaway with 5:44 left in the game, after a steal from junior Kate Klippert at mid-pool. Klippert and senior Mia Butera each had three steals for the Tars.

Just over a minute later, Newport Harbor’s Katie Jackson added a six-on-five strike, trimming the lead to 4-2. But then Kennedy scored what CdM Coach Aaron Chaney called a “huge” goal, and Kent also helped pad the lead again.

It went back to the defense, though, led by senior goalie Kate Baldoni (11 saves). CdM senior Elise Molnar played primarily set defense last year, but this season she said it’s been more of a team effort.

“Really, it’s just whoever is around,” Molnar said. “We’ve been working really hard on it. There’s not very many big setters this year, so that kind of took my position away ... We just weren’t going to foul certain players outside of five [meters], and we were going to crash back. We’ve been doing a lot of speed stuff, and we really worked on applying all our speed drills into the game.

“We’ve worked so hard. [It was a] ‘They’re going to pay for how hard we worked’ mentality. We were not going it get any closer than it did.”

Plus, she said the Sea Kings have five days off after they play El Toro today at 1:30 p.m. at Santa Margarita High. Newport Harbor plays Montebello at 3 p.m. at the same venue.

“We have an unprecedented five days off,” Molnar said, grinning. “It’s a big deal.”

The Sailors, meanwhile, were left to regroup.

Another chance to play CdM may come at the Holiday Cup, which begins Dec. 30.

Last year, the Back Bay rivals played six times.

“If we would have played [the whole game] like we had played the third and fourth [quarter], we probably would have won,” McCall said. “We’d rather lose now than lose later. We’ll be playing them soon.”

Nonleague

Corona del Mar 6, Newport Harbor 3

SCORE BY QUARTERS

NH – Jackson 1, Klippert 1, McCall 1. Saves – Burger 4.

CdM – Kent 2, Kaczmarek 1, Kennedy 1, Van Hiel 1. Saves – Baldoni 11.