CdM victory over Los Al ‘surreal’
Corona del Mar High girls’ lacrosse defender Katherine Mulvaney earned a free position shot Monday afternoon, which in and of itself earned loud cheers from teammates on the Sea Kings’ bench.
As a stalwart on CdM’s back line, Mulvaney, a junior, isn’t usually that far up the field like her twin sister Kennedy. But, with five minutes and change left in CdM’s nonleague game against Los Alamitos, it was Katherine who stepped up to the line to take the shot.
Left-handed. She’s a righty. But when the low shot found the back of the net, the bench members had reason to cheer even louder.
“I noticed my angle, so I was like, ‘Might as well just try it lefty,’” Katherine Mulvaney said after the game. “I had nothing to lose, so I just shot it and it goes in and I’m like, ‘What?’ It just made everything so surreal.”
It was a surreal moment in a surreal game for the Sea Kings at home. They beat Los Alamitos, 17-9. CdM Coach Aly Simons said its the first time in her eight-year tenure that she’s had a team beat the Griffins, who won six straight U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section South Division titles from 2009-14.
“I was telling Katherine it was like we were in a different universe,” CdM senior co-captain Paige Nelson said with a smile. “She scored with her left hand, and we just beat Los Al by eight [goals].”
No, this win definitely counted for CdM (5-1), ranked No. 6 in Southern California by laxpower.com. Junior Jensen Coop scored a season-high seven goals, and freshman Ellery Amdor scored three. Nelson had two goals and two assists, wile senior co-captain Courtney Johnston also scored twice for the Sea Kings. Senior co-captain Kennedy McGuinness and Caroline Bethel added one goal each.
Kennedy Mulvaney (six draw controls) and Emily Cannon each had two assists for the winners. Sophomore goalie Ashley Olson made six saves to anchor a defense that also featured senior Lauren Kobayashi, juniors Katie McCabe and Hailey Neumann and freshman Joslyn Simaan (two ground balls). Neumann and Simaan each had two caused turnovers.
Simons said Katherine Mulvaney would get the game ball, not just for her goal but also for giving the team good pep talks before the game and at halftime.
It was a complete team effort for the Sea Kings, who definitely enjoyed beating No. 21-ranked Los Alamitos (1-4). The Griffins had knocked the Sea Kings off in the playoffs each of the last two years, in the semifinals in 2014 and the quarterfinals last year.
“It shows where we are as a team and that we have a lot of potential this year,” Simons said. “Historically, whenever we’ve played them we’ve always come out wanting to beat them, even if we’ve not come close all the time ... I was really impressed. [My players] were really disciplined and mature about how they played, yet had full energy and never let down.”
Navy-bound Los Alamitos senior Sophia Schade had five goals, just like she did when her team beat CdM, 11-9, last year in the playoff quarterfinals. This time, though, the Sea Kings had the answers, although they were tied at 5-5 late in the first half. Bethel picked up a ground ball and scored to give the Sea Kings the lead again, then Coop added a free position shot with 27 seconds left in the half to eventually give CdM a 7-5 halftime advantage.
Schade spun around her defender and scored with 20:53 remaining in the game, narrowing her team’s deficit to 8-7. But the Sea Kings went on a 6-0 run over the next 11-plus minutes to put the game out of reach.
Coop, a San Diego State commit who now has a team-best 23 goals this season, had three goals in that stretch.
“One of the cool things is that we’re taking concepts that we’re practicing and we’re doing them in the game,” Simons said. “We’ve worked a lot on our ‘ride’ and defensive transitions, and the girls did a great job with it. It was exciting to see that they’re utilizing what we do in practice and executing it on the field.”
The Sea Kings were clearly ecstatic after the final whistle. As Coop left the field, she leaped into the arms of her junior classmate, Emma Scott.
“It’s amazing having this senior year win, beating Los Al,” Nelson said. “It was our last chance to get that win against Los Al, unless we play them in [the playoffs]. All of us captains especially are really proud.”
Corona del Mar will look to keep the momentum going into Thursday’s key league game against Beckman, also at home. The rival Patriots, ranked No. 9 in Southern California, are the defending Pacific Coast League champions, having beat CdM twice last season. Both teams are undefeated in league so far this season.
CdM shared the league title with Beckman in 2012 and ’14 but has never won it outright.
“I think we’re excited, especially coming off of this game,” Coop said. “These are the best games.”
