Newport Beach 14U girls take USA Water Polo Junior Olympics gold
The Newport Beach Water Polo Club 18-and-under girls won last year’s USA Water Polo Club Junior Olympics, an impressive goodbye for several Newport Harbor High graduates before they headed off to college.
This year, some incoming high school freshmen showed that the Sailors should continue to be plenty strong.
Newport Beach’s 14-and-under girls captured gold Sunday at Woollett Aquatics Center in Irvine, hanging on for an exciting 13-12 shootout victory over SOCAL in the title match.
Newport Beach’s Addison Ting scored the final goal to clinch the title. Valery Verdugo scored twice in the shootout and Madison Mack added a goal after the teams played to a 9-9 tie through regulation.
Goalkeeper Terra Sage Lindberg made three saves in the shootout. Newport Beach’s players tasted gold for the second time in three years after winning the Junior Olympics 12U title in 2021.
Newport Beach’s Sadie Ricks, who head coach Christina O’Beck lauded as a superstar in her defensive role throughout the tournament, earned MVP honors. O’Beck said Ricks helped keep one of the best players in the country scoreless in a quarterfinal win over 680 Drivers on Saturday.
“It’s pretty hard, but I have to do it for my team,” said Ricks, who also scored a goal in the final. “I know that it’s the most I can do to help them. I want to try my best always to benefit the team, and I want to play for them.”
Most of the players will be freshmen at Newport Harbor High this fall. Lindberg is headed to San Clemente High.
Verdugo had three goals, two assists and three steals in regulation, while center Gabby Alexson scored twice and drew three exclusions. Caroline Daniel, left-hander Campbell Pence (two assists) and Mack each added goals.
Julia Winkelmann, Morgan Dollander, Charmae Price, Olivia Bryant, Sutton Lohman, Grace Ditteaux, Allison Baron and Nikolai Pukke also contributed for the winners.
Newport Beach led 9-8 late before SOCAL’s Victoria Popejoy scored with 35 seconds left in regulation, sending the gold-medal match to the shootout. But the locals didn’t get rattled.
“I think that’s something really special about our team, we never let anything affect us,” Verdugo said. “Whenever things are going bad, I think we’re one of the most positive teams you’ll see. When things are going good, we’re the same.”
The all-Newport Harbor alumni coaching staff of O’Beck, Rachel Whitelegge and Carlee Kapana also relished the victory. O’Beck said it was her first Junior Olympics gold as a player or head coach.
Newport Beach went undefeated in the tournament and earned an 11-7 win over Vanguard in the semifinals.
Newport Beach 12Us earn silver
The Newport Beach Water Polo Club 12-and-under girls battled to make the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics title match.
Once they got there, they ran into an impressive Patriot team. Based in Irvine, Patriot earned a 13-5 win over Newport in the title match Sunday.
Lillian Price, Cece Mesenbrink, McKenna Mack, Mallory Collins and Anna Burtnyk each scored one goal for Newport Beach in the title match. Goalkeeper Blakely Gregory made four saves and had a pair of steals.
MVP Natalie Arata of Patriot matched Newport Beach’s total, scoring five goals.
Newport Beach trailed 8-2 at halftime but scored the first two goals of the third quarter to get closer. The second of those goals featured a nice passing sequence that ended with Collins feeding Price for the goal.
“I was really proud of our group,” Newport Beach head coach Kevin Ricks said. “[Patriot] is just a tough team, and they grind and make you work really hard. But the girls had some energy coming out in the third, so that was cool. That was great.”
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