Pender leads way
Just two years ago, Presley Pender was frustrated.
She was a sophomore in the Newport Harbor High girls’ water polo program. She wanted to play on varsity, but instead played on JV after having a chat with Coach Bill Barnett.
“It was kind of an iffy year for me,” Pender said. “I had a meeting with ‘Coach B,’ and he was like, ‘Presley, your time will come.’ He was like, ‘Would you rather play JV or sit on the bench?’”
Pender got valuable playing time on JV. The next year, her junior year, it finally all made sense to her when she became a varsity starter.
“It just shows you what a great coach he is,” Pender said. “Now I’m going to a Division I school [the University of Michigan] and playing water polo. I’m like, ‘Wow, these coaches know what they’re talking about.’ Everything works out.
“That’s all Coach B tells us — everything will work out. You don’t understand it while it’s going on, but looking back, everything fell right into place.”
Pender was the Sailors’ senior captain this year. She definitely helped everything fall right into place for Newport Harbor in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship match Feb. 25.
Pender, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, faced another frustration in the third quarter against rival Corona del Mar. She hadn’t dropped fast enough on CdM senior center Pippa Saunders in a Sea Kings’ power play. Saunders drew an exclusion, took the quick pass in from Cassidy Papa and scored, giving the Sea Kings a 6-3 advantage with 2:12 left in the quarter.
The fans of the top-seeded Sea Kings erupted. Saunders turned around and did a fist pump, as Pender looked on. The Sailors’ title dreams seemed to be vanishing.
“I should have been there,” Pender said. “We should have crashed on Pippa faster, but I think it all came so fast. We just knew we needed to bounce back from our mistake right then.
“After it happened, there was nothing I could do. Well, there was. I could come back and score.”
That’s just what Pender did 15 seconds later, striking from the perimeter. It set off a wild rally of five unanswered goals for the Sailors. Pender also scored the goal — from five meters into the left corner — that tied the score at 6-6 with 5:53 to play in the game.
When it was all over, the Sailors had a improbable 8-7 comeback victory for their fifth Division 1 title. The stunning turn of events seemed to fit the story of their season, as they started the year ranked No. 5 in Division I and were not considered one of the top title contenders. Most did not consider them in the same class as favorites like CdM, Foothill and Santa Barbara.
Pender also played in the Orange County All-Star Game Friday night at Ocean View High, along with senior teammate Maddy McLaren. Their South team fell to the North team, 12-10.
Pender was an ideal team captain for the underdog Sailors. She stands just 5-foot-6. She’s a smart defensive player, but also one of the team’s top excluded players if she’s forced to guard two meters during a game.
But she also developed into the team’s most dependable outside shooters. In many of the Sailors’ big wins, Pender provided a spark.
There was the early-season 13-11 upset victory over Foothill, the one won without McLaren that gave the rest of the Sailors so much confidence. Pender had two goals and a team-high four steals.
“We wanted that win so bad, just to prove ourselves as a program,” Pender said. “We wanted to uphold the Newport tradition.”
There was another game against Foothill, in the semifinals of the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions. Pender nearly single-handedly led the Sailors to victory, scoring all four of their second-half goals in a 10-9 victory.
“I think she’s done an outstanding job,” Barnett said. “She’s been a true leader, in the sense that she’s worked very, very, hard and performed to her capabilities. She’s given us a big lift with some of her outside goals.”
She’s always been fast, so she was a good counterattack player and a good driver. But that outside shooting helped Newport, time and again.
“This year, I think my shooting has improved a lot,” Pender said. “I’ve been working on that so hard in practice. It finally paid off, especially in the last game of my high school career. It’s like the best feeling in the world, knowing that all my hard work has paid off now.”
Pender credited all of her teammates, from the starters to the bench members of “Team Beta.” It was definitely a team effort on a squad that Barnett said played its roles as well as any he has ever coached.
“I can’t even explain how we played so well together,” Pender said. “Everyone just understood their roles perfectly. Coach B instilled that in us. He’d have meetings with each of us individually. To have him looking at you and say, ‘What’s your role on the team?’ is a little bit scary. But everyone had a role, even some of the people on the team who didn’t get that much playing time, because there’s so many seniors. [They were] like, ‘My role is to work hard in practice so the starters can get better.’
“Everyone knew their place on the team; there was no confusion. No one thought, ‘Oh my God, I should be playing over her.’ We respected each other so much in the water. Team Beta, those seniors like Annie Kinney, Lotte Martin, Hailey Shaw, all those seniors pushed us so hard in practice.”
The sophomore kid who wanted a shot at a varsity spot turned into a senior leader who has earned respect both in and out of the water. She also credited her coaches, Barnett and Brian Melstrom.
“Both of them have taught me so many great life lessons that I’ll have with me for the rest of my life,” Pender said. “Don’t worry. Everything will work out in the end.”
She is living proof.
Twitter: @mjszabo
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Presley Pender
Born: Sept. 25, 1993
Hometown: Newport Beach
Height: 5-foot-6
Sport: Water polo
Coach: Bill Barnett
Favorite food: Sushi
Favorite movie: “Walk the Line”
Favorite athletic moment: Winning CIF this year with the Newport Harbor girls’ water polo team.
Week in review: Pender, a senior captain, scored twice for Newport Harbor in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship match Feb. 25. She helped lead a furious comeback as the Sailors defeated rival CdM, 8-7. Pender also scored a goal and had three steals in the Sailors’ semifinal victory over Laguna Beach, 7-6 in overtime.
