Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week: Lawson assisting CdM’s fast start
In water polo, like in many sports, the pass is easy to overlook.
Goal scorers are easy to celebrate. So are goalies who make big blocks. But, every once in a while, there’s another stat that jumps out at you.
So, when Corona del Mar High girls’ water polo senior Sarah Lawson recorded eight assists in the Sea Kings’ 10-3 season-opening victory over Santa Margarita last week, it was easy to take notice.
Eight assists? That’s impressive in basketball, but even more so in water polo. The number might seem surprising to some.
But when you learn that Lawson has been working on her passing for years with her father Andrew, a former water polo star at Newport Harbor, it becomes easier to understand.
“He always wanted one of his kids to play,” Sarah Lawson said of her dad, the 1984 CIF Southern Section Division 4A Co-Player of the Year who went on to play at Stanford with Sarah’s uncles, Richard and Grant Stanley. “It was a fun thing for us to do together. He’s the one who taught me how to pass correctly, and stuff like that. I always wanted to make sure I knew how to do everything before I’d even go to practice, so we’d go on the weekends and pass and shoot.”
Sarah’s older brother Noah didn’t play high school sports and her younger brother Ben, an eighth grader at CdM, plays basketball and volleyball. So indeed, Sarah is the one of Andrew and Brooke Lawson’s three children who plays water polo.
Fortunately for CdM, the soft-spoken senior is really good at it. Lawson, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, is a three-year starter for the Sea Kings and a team captain this year, along with fellow seniors Jaleh Moaddeli, Emily Ritner and Kelly Morgan.
Lawson grew up swimming for the Harbor View neighborhood swim team, under the tutelage of Kate Inglis. It was Morgan who invited Sarah Lawson to play water polo at CdM in eighth grade. About five years later, Lawson has grown into a key player for CdM (4-0), which plays Orange Lutheran in a Holiday Cup tournament semifinal Friday at 11:45 a.m. at Newport Harbor High.
Lawson is the reliable passer from the “six” position on the right wing, and it’s fun to watch. She’s also a very smart overall player; it makes sense that she’ll be playing at Princeton next year.
“She has a good feel for timing,” CdM Coach Kevin Ricks said. “The passes are well-executed, but I think the timing is the most critical thing. Right as Chloe [Harbilas] separates and gets position, the ball’s in her hand. Same thing with Jaleh. I just think Sarah does a really good job of not turning her back to the play and keeping that vision open. She can see it develop, and she has a great sense of when that ball needs to arrive. We’re fortunate to have a kid with that kind of a vision.”
She had another good all-around game on Dec. 23 as CdM earned its second straight Battle of the Bay win over rival Newport Harbor. She had a goal, two assists and two field blocks as the Sea Kings earned a 9-5 win.
One of the field blocks, especially, was big. It came right before halftime with goalie Erin Tharp excluded, allowing CdM to end the first half with a one-goal advantage.
It’s the little things that separate Lawson, who was a Daily Pilot Dream Team member last year after scoring 25 goals, tying for the team lead with 48 assists and adding 41 steals.
“She’s that kid that is a coach in the water,” Ricks said. “She has real good vision, and she understands what [CdM assistant coach] Pat [Reynolds] and I are preaching about as our team philosophy, how we want to attack people. She does a really good job of executing that, taking that game plan from film or a team meeting and then applying it in the water.”
Lawson had plenty of options to dish the ball to as a sophomore, with Maddie Musselman, Eliza Britt and Grace Morgan as top scoring options. But last year, all three of those girls were gone. She had to grow into more of a leadership role.
“We lost almost all of our starters,” Lawson said. “It was up to me to help create a little bit more and organize the offense, which was different. It’s definitely a work in progress. I’ve learned a lot from the coaches and my teammates, and we have a good open relationship with each other. They tell me, ‘Don’t yell at me this way,’ or, ‘Don’t instruct me this way.’ It was hard to step up, but I think being able to communicate in the water has helped me being able to communicate outside the water.
“I’m excited, because I feel like going from sophomore year to junior year, I hadn’t played with a lot of the girls, so it was kind of hard to work on my chemistry with them. But now, I’ve played for a year and a half with the same starting group, essentially. I feel like we have a lot of good chemistry and I know exactly where they want the passes and when.”
When she’s not in the water, you can find her reading a good book or studying for one of her three Advanced Placement classes. She also does National Charity League work with her mom.
In terms of water polo, Sarah still gets pointers from her dad after the games, she said with a smile.
“He can talk my ear off,” she said. “He can talk forever about every game. Sometimes it’s repetitive from what the coaches tell me, but it’s always good to hear. I definitely appreciate it. It’s made me such a better player.”
You know what’s something that can’t be overlooked?
Confidence.
Sarah Lawson
Born: May 31, 1999
Hometown: Newport Beach
Height: 5 feet 5
Sport: Water Polo
Year: Senior
Coach: Kevin Ricks
Favorite food: Mexican food
Favorite movie: “The Notebook”
Favorite athletic moment: Winning the gold medal with CdM Aquatics at the Pan Pacific Youth Water Polo Festival in New Zealand in July, 2014.
Week in review: Lawson had a career-high eight assists in CdM’s 10-3 season-opening win over Santa Margarita on Dec. 20, then had a goal, two assists and two field blocks in a 9-5 Battle of the Bay win over rival Newport Harbor on Dec. 23.
