Fraipont, La Cañada girls’ water polo too much for Burroughs
BURBANK — Whatever role is needed to be filled, Genevieve Fraipoint is ready to handle the assignment.
It’s not unusual to find the La Cañada High girls’ water polo player at either end of the pool creating scoring opportunities or in position to create a counter-attack.
Fraipont showed she could handle the responsibility of providing offense for the Spartans on Monday, as she scored a match-best five goals to spark visiting La Cañada to a 19-4 nonleague win against Burroughs.
“I go out there to wherever they need me to play,” said Fraipont, a reigning All-Area, All-CIF and All-Rio Hondo League first-team pick who helped the Spartans advance to the semifinals last season. “You try to be good and versatile in a lot of areas, like driving and playing smart on defense.
“I think we have a pretty fast team and that’s helped us get a lot of counter-attacks. We have a very good team and you hope for the best.”
La Cañada (2-0) built a 9-0 lead in the second quarter and continued to hold Burroughs (1-2) at bay.
Fraipont, who helped the Spartans split the league championship with Temple City last season, had three goals in that surge. Her first goal made it 1-0 with 5:12 left in the first quarter. Fraipont scored her second goal to give the Spartans a 6-0 lead with 6:43 remaining in the second quarter before scoring again to make it 8-0 a little over a minute later.
“We have a lot of players who have been together for a long time,” Fraipont said. “That helps us a lot because we know where we need to be.
“We’ll be playing a real tough schedule. Since we got moved up to Division II, we’ll play the hard teams that will get us ready for league and the playoffs.”
The Spartans got four goals from Mimi Zwaneveld, three from Madison Solares and two each from Gabriela Lichucki and Caroline Daniels. Heather Connelly, Tess Fundter and Julia Nicholls scored one goal for La Cañada.
“We have a very cohesive group,” said first-year La Cañada Coach Nicki Davidson, whose team held a 13-1 halftime lead. “The key is to put all the pieces together and have them fill their roles.
“We’re able to have a lot of options handy out there and that will make all of our players that much more confident.”
Burroughs, which took second in the Pacific League and qualified for the Division IV playoffs last season, cut the deficit to 9-1 on a goal by Gwen Turla with 4:55 to go in the second quarter.
Connelly completed the first-half scoring with 11 seconds left.
The Spartans held an 18-1 lead after three quarters. They scored all five of their goals in a four-minute span.
Burroughs Coach Jacob Cook, who guided the school’s boys’ team to the Division V championship in November, said the Indians couldn’t overcome their early struggles.
“I think we were a little passive and we weren’t very confident,” Cook said. “We’re still trying to figure things out and we haven’t really had that many practices.
“We just had an off-day. La Cañada is very good and they have a lot of great shooters and do a good job attacking.”
Turla, who earned All-Area accolades last season, had two goals. Burroughs also received two goals from Bianca Sanchez.
La Cañada goalkeeper Carolyne Stern, who received All-Area, all-league and All-CIF honors last season, finished with nine saves.
--
Charles Rich, charles.rich@latimes.com
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
