Newport Harbor girls’ water polo takes fourth place at Bill Barnett Holiday Cup

The Newport Harbor High girls’ water polo team was seeded fourth for the Bill Barnett Holiday Cup, and the Sailors’ placing matched that seeding.

Even after a couple of tough one-goal losses Saturday, the hosts came out of the tournament excited with the chance for growth.

Newport Harbor pushed defending tournament champion Orange Lutheran to the brink in the semifinals before falling 9-8. The Sailors also lost by a goal to Mater Dei, 5-4, in the third-place match.

Orange Lutheran, the defending CIF Southern Section Open Division champion, stayed undefeated this season after edging Foothill 9-8 for its second straight Bill Barnett Holiday Cup crown.

Newport Harbor’s Harper Price (2) tries to pass over Orange Lutheran’s Kate Sloman (20) during the semifinals of the Bill Barnett Holiday Cup on Saturday.

(James Carbone/James Carbone)

Laguna Beach and Corona del Mar finished fifth and seventh, respectively, in the 12-team tournament.

“Developing mental toughness is being able to come back and play in the game that no one wants to play in, which is the the third-place game,” Newport Harbor coach Ross Sinclair said. “Obviously the score didn’t indicate the outcome for us, but this whole weekend has been a positive. I’m super-proud of the way the girls battled today, two quality games against two good opponents.”

The Sailors (8-3) led for much of the semifinal match against Orange Lutheran before coming up a goal short. The Lancers’ Michelle Urkov scored the eventual game-winner with 1:20 remaining in the fourth quarter.

It wasn’t due to a lack of center play, as Newport senior Ryan Chalupnik and freshman Gabby Alexson combined for three goals.

Newport Harbor’s Gigi Rimlinger (6) looks for an open player against Orange Lutheran.

(James Carbone)

Junior Caitlin Stayt played what Sinclair called her best game yet with two goals, two assists and two steals, and sophomore Kylie Robison also scored twice. Junior goalkeeper Lydia Soderberg made seven saves.

“I think 9-8 against [Orange Lutheran] is a pretty good statement,” Stayt said. “Something special about our team is that we like to go six in, six out, and I think the more inexperienced players really got a chance in a high-level game. I think there was a lot of growth, especially defensively. Ross was just saying that it’s anybody’s game in this tournament. Everybody’s so close, so it’s really exciting moving into the new year and the next month with Santa Barbara [Tournament of Champions] and CIF coming up. It’s anyone’s game.”

Newport Harbor tried to rally from a late 5-2 deficit in the third-place match against Mater Dei. Angelena Peterson and Sofia Del Villar scored to bring the Sailors within one.

Newport Harbor’s Kylie Robison (15) looks for an open player against Orange Lutheran during Saturday’s action.

(James Carbone)

Sinclair was issued a red card in the final minute, leaving assistant coach Christina O’Beck at the helm. Harper Price drew a six-on-five and the Sailors got a good look, but the Monarchs came up with the save in the closing seconds.

“I think there were definitely signs of us being impatient and kind of scrambling,” Stayt said. “You can blame it on fatigue or anything, but at the end of the day, we needed to calm down a little more and take our time. In the end, we got a good look, a cross pass and shot. I think Ross would take that, if he was here to see it.”

Price and Alexson also scored for Newport Harbor, which got nine saves from Soderberg.

Newport Harbor’s goalie Lydia Soderberg (1) makes a save against Orange Lutheran on Saturday.

(James Carbone)

Laguna Beach finishes 5th, with CdM in 7th place

Laguna Beach won both of its matches Saturday to conclude the tournament, earning a 19-13 victory over Corona del Mar in a fifth-place semifinal followed by an 11-6 win against Oaks Christian in the fifth-place match.

Senior Ava Knepper led the Breakers (6-5) with four goals against Oaks Christian, while Kara Carver, Sophie Colladay and recent UCLA commit Presley Jones each scoring twice. Junior goalkeeper Siena Jumani made seven saves.

Knepper scored four goals in the morning match against CdM. Senior co-captain Emmy Hensley, who celebrated her 18th birthday on Saturday, added four goals.

Laguna Beach finished 3-1 in the tournament, only losing by a goal to Mater Dei in the quarterfinals.

Senior co-captain Emmy Hensley helped Laguna Beach finish fifth at the Bill Barnett Holiday Cup.

(Matt Szabo)

“Even though we lost to Mater Dei, our coaches were saying that it was probably our best game,” Hensley said. “We’ve all been putting in the work in practice, putting our heads down and realizing that it’s now or never ... We brushed it off today and made it a great end of the weekend. I think everybody is super-proud of how we’ve improved and shown that we can stick together and persevere through the challenges. It makes us super-excited for the rest of the season.”

Corona del Mar bounced back to beat Alta Loma 18-6 in the Bill Barnett Holiday Cup seventh-place match. Junior Reagan Weir led the way with nine goals, while fellow junior left-hander Didi Evans also had a big game with three goals, seven assists and four steals.

Mackenzie Dollander and Tia Wells added two goals each for CdM (6-4), which got 11 saves from goalkeeper Macey Grimmond.

CdM junior Didi Evans had a big game in the seventh-place match of the Bill Barnett Holiday Cup.

(Matt Szabo)

“We’re definitely on the right track,” Evans said. “Every loss, we take away those mistakes that we’ve made and we really practice them in practice and get better at them. For example, in Battle of the Bay, we struggled with our five-man [defense] and we’ve really worked on that in practice and gotten better at that. We’re definitely starting to improve a lot.”