Sudden-death defeat halts playoff run for Burroughs girls’ water polo
One of the most successful postseason runs over the last decade for the Burroughs High girls’ water polo team concluded in Saturday morning’s CIF Southern Section Division VI quarterfinals.
The Indians lost a defensive slugfest in sudden-death double-overtime, 4-3, to host Tustin at Santa Ana Foothill High despite a magnificent 20 saves from sophomore goalie Emmanuela Nathan.
The defeat ended a wonderful season for Burroughs that included a 12-6 campaign, a runner-up finish in the Pacific League and the team’s first quarterfinal advancement in six seasons.
Burroughs also won two playoff games — over Nipomo (14-3 score) and versus Walnut (13-5) — in the same postseason for the first time in over a decade.
“This is the best team Burroughs has had in a while, so there’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Burroughs coach Jacob Cook said. “The girls were bummed for sure, but I told them to keep their heads high.”
Saturday’s match-up was dominated by goalie play as Nathan and Tustin senior Kalypso Fish put on a show as the contest was tied at 2 heading into overtime.
Tillers sophomore utility player Rachel Minter gave her team the lead for the third time in the contest with a score 1:22 in overtime to put Tustin ahead, 3-2.
That goal was matched, though, with 17 seconds left on the final of a team-high two goals from senior Gwen Turla as Burroughs pulled even again at 3.
With the contested still deadlocked, the game moved into sudden-death overtime when Tustin senior Hannah Munoz delivered the dagger with a golden goal at 2:08 to secure the Tillers’ advancement to the semifinals.
“We just never took the lead in the game,” Cook said. “They’d go up and we’d tie and we kept on trying, but we just didn’t get ahead. It was so hard to score.”
Tustin took a 1-0 lead at the 1:30 mark in the first quarter on a goal from senior Vanessa Tang.
The teams went scoreless for the rest of the first period and over the next two quarters, as well, until a goal from Turla at 5:01 in the fourth quarter broke the Indians’ scoring drought and tied the game at 1.
Tustin finally snapped its scoreless streak with a goal from Munoz at 2:48 that was countered by a goal from Burroughs junior Aleah Orozco with 23 seconds left that sent the contest into overtime.
“This was by far the best defensive team we played this season,” Cook said. “They had a really good defensive strategy and their goalie was really tough. It ended up being a really good game and we just came up one goal short.”
Twitter: @campadresports
