Newport Harbor tops CdM in rainy first Battle of the Bay match

Newport Harbor's Taylor Smith shoots and scores against Corona del Mar's Sarah Decker.

By Matt SzaboStaff Writer

Dec. 24, 2021 6:19 PM PT

A steady rain fell as the Newport Harbor High girls’ water polo team hosted Back Bay rival Corona del Mar on Thursday night for the Surf League opener.

It didn’t stop the Sailors’ offensive firepower. Few things do.

Senior Morgan Netherton scored five goals as Newport Harbor routed CdM 15-6 in the first Battle for the Bay match.

Newport Harbor's Angie Peterson scores against Corona del Mar's Makena Macedo.

Bia Diaz, a senior transfer student from Brazil playing in her first match for the Sailors (4-0), added four goals. Diaz missed the Sailors’ first three games with a hand injury, Netherton said. She is staying with the family of senior Lily Gess.

“She was very excited to play and she did great,” Netherton said. “We all love her, and she’s adapting to our style of play very well. It’s very different in Brazil, she always says that to us, but she’s very willing to learn our system.”

Gess, Taylor Smith, Angie Peterson, Makaelee Hansberger, Avery Montiel and Alex Love scored one goal each for Newport Harbor, which built a 4-1 advantage after CdM freshman left-hander Didi Evans scored the first goal of the match.

Junior goalkeeper Anna Reed made seven saves and also had five steals for the Sailors, who are tied for second in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 poll. Newport Harbor drew six penalty shots.

Corona del Mar's Makena Macedo takes a shot against Newport Harbor's Lily Gess.

“This was one of our first real league games in a while,” Netherton said. “The last season [a three-week season last spring due to the coronavirus pandemic] obviously was kind of short and didn’t feel quite like this. It was really fun to get everybody together and do proper scouting for the week, and then come into this game ready to go. Obviously, we’re happy with the result of it.”

Newport Harbor has high hopes for this season. It has a quartet of four-year varsity players in Netherton, Smith, Gess and Love.

Senior Claire Eusey led Corona del Mar (4-3) with three goals, while Emily Cloherty and Makena Macedo also scored. Junior goalkeeper Sarah Decker made six saves — including one on a penalty shot — and also had six steals.

The Sea Kings, ranked No. 8 in Division 1, were missing their second-year head coach. Assistant coach Lyric Soto said that Melissa Seidemann, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, had to sit out Thursday’s match after she was red-carded in the third quarter of CdM’s previous match at Foothill on Dec. 10.

CdM had no other coaches available, so what was a 5-3 lead at the time turned into a forfeit loss. Soto was coaching the JV team at the Orange Lutheran tournament at Santiago Canyon College.

Soto said she was proud of the girls for the fight they showed on Thursday.

“Those 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds have the most class and character I’ve ever seen,” Soto said. “For them to be thrown into that situation and agree to everything [assistant coach] Lucas [Reynolds] and I said, and just go with it and keep fighting? I don’t know if I could do that at 14 or 15.”