Girls’ Water Polo: CdM finishes eighth in Santa Barbara
SANTA BARBARA — For the first time since 2001, neither Corona del Mar nor Newport Harbor made the semifinals of the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions girls’ water polo tournament this year.
Both teams also had tough days Saturday to conclude the tournament, but the hope CdM Coach Kevin Ricks and Newport Harbor Coach Brian Melstrom both have is that they can build on these games for the future.
Corona del Mar finished eighth after losing to Dos Pueblos, 10-9, in a fifth-place semifinal and to Royal, 7-6, in sudden-death overtime in the seventh-place game at Santa Barbara High. Newport Harbor placed 12th after falling to Mater Dei, 9-7, in a ninth-place semifinal and to El Toro, 10-9 in sudden-death overtime, in the 11th-place match at Dos Pueblos High.
Orange Lutheran won its first TOC title after beating Foothill, 8-7, in sudden-death overtime. The Lancers also dethroned top-seeded Laguna Beach, the two-time defending tournament champion, with an 8-7 semifinal victory. Laguna Beach, which is also the two-time defending CIF Southern Section Division 1 champion, had won seven straight regular-season tournaments since the start of the 2013-14 season.
Orange Lutheran’s Kelsey Tyler earned tournament MVP honors. Neither CdM nor Newport Harbor received all-tournament team selections, as they all went to the top seven teams.
CdM Coach Kevin Ricks said this was the deepest Tournament of Champions that he can remember. His Sea Kings (8-5) proved it, as three of their four games were decided by a single goal. They beat Mater Dei by a goal in the first round on Friday.
“The goal is always to win the games, but you’re not going to win every one-goal game,” Ricks said. “We got one of those [Friday], and we were on the other side of it today. I thought the girls played really tough against Dos Pueblos, and against Royal the girls did a lot of good things. Those are two tough teams, and they managed to find a few more opportunities than us. But there’s nothing wrong with the way the girls played. They did a great job.”
Senior center Bridgett Storm led the Sea Kings with four goals against Dos Pueblos, and Jaleh Moaddeli scored twice while Sarah Lawson, Kelly Morgan and Sophie Wallace added goals. CdM senior goalie Heidi Ritner made 10 saves and Lawson had four steals.
CdM fell behind 10-7 late in the fourth quarter before rallying. Storm scored a penalty shot drawn by sophomore Chloe Harbilas, then Storm added a backhand shot from center with 49 seconds left to play. After CdM got the ball back, it called timeout.
But Storm, angling for a foul call outside of five meters, was instead called for an offensive foul herself with five seconds left to play.
“This time it didn’t go our way, but what I liked about is that the girls executed what we talked about in the timeout and ran something with confidence,” Ricks said. “That’s all you can ask for. It’s not always going to go your way, but I was happy with the focus and the confidence in that moment. It was what we had drawn up, and we did it as a team.”
The game against Royal for seventh place was back and forth. Moaddeli scored late in the third quarter to give the Sea Kings a 6-5 lead, but they wouldn’t score again. Megan Abarta scored the game-winning goal in sudden-death overtime for Royal, the top-ranked team in CIF Southern Section Division 4.
Moaddeli and Harbilas each scored twice for the Sea Kings against Royal, while Ritner had a standout game with 14 saves, including one on a five-meter penalty shot.
For the tournament, Ritner had 43 saves in four games, including three penalty-shot stuffs. She lost her main center defender, Morgan, to a freak head injury suffered before the Royal game. That put Wallace, a freshman, into the starting lineup. Seniors Tia DiGiovanni (one steal) and Devon Cooper also stepped up to make contributions, while freshman Layne Anzaldo had an assist.
“A lot of girls stepped up and did what they needed to do,” Ritner said. “We’re working on a few things. One thing is our mental state, how we have to stay positive the entire time. You get down on yourself, and we’re trying to work on not having that happen, so we can be switched on all the time. I thought we played really well in the third quarter and fourth quarter of this game.”
Newport Harbor (7-10) also showed flashes, but dropped a couple of close games at Dos Pueblos. Facing Mater Dei in the ninth-place semifinal, the Sailors weren’t helped as they were called for 14 exclusions, while Mater Dei was called for just three.
Jessica Lynch scored three goals, and Lissa Westerman had two goals and one assist, while Katie Kearns and Sammie Garcia also scored. Senior goalie Maddy Kanzler had seven saves and four steals.
Kearns and Garcia each scored three goals and had three steals in the sudden-death loss to El Toro. Lynch had two goals, and Sarah Barker added one, while Josie Miller had three steals. Kanzler made five saves.
“Overall, there’s a lot of positives,” Newport Harbor Coach Brian Melstrom said. “I feel very optimistic that we’re right in there with all of the top teams. I’m proud of the fight. We’re doing some good things, and I don’t think [this tournament] changes anything for us [in terms of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 rankings, where Newport Harbor is No. 9].”
