Sailors’ senior night success

Senior night was significant on Wednesday for the Newport Harbor High girls’ water polo team.

This is not the Sailors squad that many see as CIF Southern Section Division 1 title contenders. The Sailors are below .500 and have not earned a significant upset victory this season. The senior class is small, with four girls in co-captains Katie Kearns and Maddy Kanzler, as well as Sammie Garcia and Josie Miller.

These are all facts, but the quartet don’t feel like these statistics define them.

“Definitely this year especially, we’ve learned a lot more about ourselves, how to deal with adversity,” Kearns said. “I think it’s made us better people in the pool and out of the pool.”

The character of these young women is not in question. And, as they celebrated senior night against Edison, they helped the Sailors post a dominant 12-2 victory that clinched outright second place in the Sunset League.

In a group void of NCAA Division 1 signees, first-year head coach Brian Melstrom has instead found a senior class that is tough and resilient.

“This group has gone through so much with the club situation the last three years, the shuffling through of all kinds of coaches on the girls’ club side,” Melstrom said. “To fight through that and persevere and to be those four girls who stayed together all the way through? That’s exciting to see as a coach. That’s what makes me the most proud to be out here doing what I’m doing, to see the smiles on their face and the rewards for their efforts.”

Now they want to extend the season for the Sailors (12-15, 4-1 in league). Newport Harbor awaits the release of the Division 1 playoff brackets on Saturday at 10 a.m.

Wednesday night’s victory meant that Newport Harbor avoided a three-way tie for second place in league with Huntington Beach and Edison. It also meant that Newport Harbor will enter the playoffs on a three-game winning streak that is modest, but includes an impressive 10-2 win over Sunset League champion Los Alamitos in Saturday’s 13th-place game of the Irvine Southern California Championships.

“It’s not spectacular by any measure, but it’s our longest of the year and it’s coming at the right time, leading into playoffs,” Melstrom said.

Kearns and Garcia led the Sailors with three goals each, but Newport Harbor also did it with defense against Edison (7-15, 2-3 in league). It was close early, as Edison’s Peyton Murray narrowed her team’s deficit to 3-2 late in the first quarter with a power-play goal. Newport Harbor’s Lissa Westerman scored from six meters with three seconds left, giving the Sailors a 4-2 advantage at the quarter break.

Newport Harbor kept adding onto the lead, as the Chargers were blanked in the final three quarters. They finished just one for nine on the power play and also had a penalty shot blocked by Kanzler, who made seven saves before being subbed out in the fourth quarter for junior goalie Chloe Schilling.

Miller said that she said “mac and cheese” in her head before Kanzler made the penalty shot block late in the third quarter. That’s a bit of a team inside joke that has been around the last couple of years.

“That’s our joke,” Kanzler said. “If you want someone to miss a shot, you say ‘mac and cheese.’ It kind of works a lot of the time ... It was nice, having a five-meter block on senior night.”

Jessica Lynch scored twice for Newport Harbor, while Westerman, Sarah Barker and Kaela Whelan scored one goal each. Whelan was impressive all-around, as she drew a penalty shot and had a big field block in the final minute on Edison’s Harvard-bound senior standout Julie Harrison.

“The last two games have been pretty good for her,” Melstrom said of Whelan, a sophomore. “She’s young. She’s going to take this year and run with it.”

Quincy Morgan had a steal and Annie Rankin had an assist for the Sailors.

Now Newport Harbor awaits its first-round CIF matchup. Melstrom said he’d like another shot at teams like Santa Barbara and Mater Dei, both of whom beat the Sailors in close games earlier this season.

What he knows, though, is that his team won’t be an easy out. With former coach Bill Barnett again on the pool deck watching on Wednesday, the Sailors impressed.

“It’s been nice to be part of the Barnett generation as well as the new one that’s coming up, with ‘Mel’ coaching,” Garcia said.

Edison’s senior class of Harrison, Maddie Lunde, Bree Marmion, Laurin Semmelroth and Hayden Stark also was honored in a pregame ceremony.