Corona del Mar girls’ water polo steadies itself, picks up win to open CIF playoffs
None of the members of the Corona del Mar High girls’ water polo team had ever touched the pool in a playoff match prior to Wednesday night.
There were no CIF Southern Section playoffs last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the Sea Kings didn’t make it two years ago. Seniors Claire Eusey and Mia Bernhoit were on the Division 1 finalist team as freshmen in 2018-19, but they never got into the postseason matches.
Facing their first dose of “win or go home,” the Sea Kings lived to survive another day.
Eusey scored five goals and freshman left-hander Didi Evans added four goals as CdM earned a 13-9 win at Montebello Schurr in the first round of the Division 1 playoffs.
“I think getting those first CIF game jitters out of the way was big for us,” Eusey said after the Sea Kings pulled away in the second half, booking their spot in the Division 1 quarterfinals.
CdM (16-13) will play at Westlake Village Oaks Christian in a quarterfinal match Saturday.
The Sea Kings were shorthanded Wednesday, with both head coach Melissa Seidemann and junior starter Emily Cloherty out sick. Assistant coach Lyric Soto tried to impart some wisdom about the postseason to the team.
Soto would know, as Foothill High was a contender throughout her high school career. In 2015, she helped lead the Knights to the Division 1 title match as a senior.
“People play different, they come out different, they’ve got nothing to lose,” Soto said. “I told them we see it all the time in March Madness, teams that should not be beating teams and they do … This was a good first game together to realize, people play hard because they want to win. So, we’ve got to play harder.”
CdM had beaten Schurr (11-13), the Almont League champion, by margins of nine and 12 goals in the teams’ previous two meetings this season. Wednesday’s match was tighter.
The Sea Kings led 6-3 at halftime, but the Spartans pulled within two goals on three occasions in the third quarter. The last time came when junior Delilah Moreno’s power-play goal brought Schurr within 8-6 late in the quarter.
Moreno led Schurr with five goals, while goalkeeper Erika Staine also stood out with 12 saves, including two on CdM penalty shots.
CdM proved up to the challenge by scoring four straight goals of its own, building a 12-6 advantage. Three of them came from Evans the freshman, all on the power play, while Eusey also scored from center on junior Makena Macedo’s assist.
“Right before, the nerves were kind of kicking in,” Evans said. “But when I jumped in the pool, they settled. It didn’t really feel like a CIF game, it felt like a normal league game. Nothing really to worry about.”
Speedy junior Jillian Schlom also scored twice for CdM, with Macedo and freshman Reagan Weir adding one goal each. Bernhoit drew five exclusions for the Sea Kings, who struggled on the power play until later in the second half, and Eusey drew three penalty shots.
Aliyah Cohen, Kendall D’Ambrosia and Aubrie Anderson all had a pair of steals for the winners.
Junior goalkeeper Sarah Decker had three saves and a steal, and sophomore goalkeeper Dahlia Archer added a save at the fourth-quarter buzzer for CdM.
The Sea Kings will likely go into Saturday’s quarterfinal as a slight underdog, with Oaks Christian ranking No. 3 in the final Division 1 poll and CdM at No. 6. But Corona del Mar has been battle-tested, and was competitive at times against all three of its Surf League opponents despite an 0-6 league record.
That record was certainly understandable, as Newport Harbor, Laguna Beach and Los Alamitos earned three of the top four seeds in the Open Division.
“There’s been a learning curve,” Soto said. “I think they’re so excited because now this is finally their chance. That’s why they’ve just been going after it.”
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