Q & A WITH AARON CHANEY:

Coach Aaron Chaney sported a lei. He was in no Hawaiian mood to celebrate Saturday night.

The Corona del Mar High girls’ water polo team lost in the CIF Southern Section Division I final for the second straight year. This time, the No. 1-seeded Sea Kings fell to No. 2 Dos Pueblos, 3-2, at Irvine High.

CdM (29-2) had its chances to beat the Chargers (28-3) for the third time this season. With 12 seconds left, the Sea Kings had the ball, but never got a shot off.

Dos Pueblos, the defending Division II champ, broke the Sea Kings’ hearts, ending their 15-game wining streak.

The Daily Pilot caught up with Chaney after the Sea Kings finished short of winning their first Division I title. CdM has won four Division II titles and one Division IV title.

Question: How did your team shut down Kiley Neushul and did you feel you got a good look there at the end?

Answer: We’ve been running those plays for awhile. We’re trying to get the ball to [Victoria] Kennedy, who was coming off of a pick. The pass was really high. It’s hard. It’s a long pass to make for a goalie. [Kate Baldoni is] a great passer. We thought she was open for a catch-and-shoot quick goal there. It just didn’t happen. We had a lot of opportunities in the game.

Our defense was really good. There [were] a couple of cracks in the team and they got a couple of goals. Heather [Van Hiel] did an outstanding job guarding Kiley. [That week] we had assistant Christina Hewko, [a CdM graduate] who played at Stanford and played on the senior national team for awhile, and is trying out again this year. So [she] ended up playing Kiley in practice. Playing against Christina was real good practice for Heather.

Q: It seemed like they kept crashing whenever Leslee Kaczmarek and Elise Molnar touched the ball.

A: We scored seven goals on them [from] two meters the first time we played them. They never let us get the ball into two meters [Saturday]. We tried to shoot to [goalie Sami Hill’s] right. She was obviously hurting. She was crying at the end of the game. Her thumb was really bothering her. We saw the cast on her, [I said], “Shoot to the right side.”

How close was that lob in [by Van Hiel with 2:19 mark left in the third period, when we were trailing, 2-1,]? You think the goal judge was sleeping?

Q: How disheartening was it that they came back and scored?

A: I think the goal judge was sleeping.

Q: Are you coming back next year?

A: I don’t know. Yeah, right now I am. I don’t have any plans to do anything else, you know. Eventually my wife and I would like to get back to Hawaii. Get back to see my mom. My mom lives back there alone, so I need to get back there and take care of her.

Q: If you had won, would it have made your decision to come back any easier?

A: Winning or losing doesn’t really have anything to do with it. There [are] a lot of things coming up. My wife is having a baby in a month. My plans right now are to come back, but you know.

Q: Is it going to be a lot harder for CdM next year?

A: We’re losing a lot of people. It’s going to be a rebuilding team.

Q: Could you get to a third straight final?

A: Next year, yeah, we can. I’m calling it right now. Dos Pueblos goes undefeated next year.

Q: You started off this season against the Chargers. Did you expect to see them in the title match?

A: I thought there [were] five really good teams in Division I, Dos Pueblos and us, Newport Harbor, Foothill and Los Alamitos.