Girls’ Water Polo: San Marcos eliminates CdM
SANTA BARBARA — A bus carrying the Corona del Mar High girls’ water polo team was rear-ended Saturday morning on Highway 101.
The Sea Kings, traveling up to their CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoff quarterfinal match against Santa Barbara San Marcos, were stuck in traffic due to a mudslide around La Conchita. Then, they suddenly felt a jolt.
“It wasn’t even that surprising,” CdM senior defender Kelly Morgan said. “Things like this happen to our team. This guy had hit a few other cars, then hit our bus and the axle broke.”
The bus was out of service after that. CdM parents, and even some San Marcos parents, drove the Sea Kings the rest of the way to Santa Barbara High.
CdM had left Newport Beach at 7 a.m., hoping for a leisurely bus ride. Instead, the Sea Kings had to regroup from the events of the morning prior to the 1 p.m. game time.
Give credit to No. 3-seeded San Marcos, however. As they did in the teams’ first meeting of this season, the Royals jumped on CdM early in the game.
This one ended the Sea Kings’ season, as San Marcos earned an 11-4 victory to advance to the semifinals for the second straight year.
San Marcos (25-5) dominated, taking a 5-0 first-quarter lead. The Royals were on their way to beating CdM in the quarterfinals again, advancing to a semifinal date with No. 2-seeded Mater Dei on Wednesday night at Irvine’s Woollett Aquatics Center. Mater Dei beat Foothill, 9-8 in sudden-death overtime, in another quarterfinal game.
USC-bound senior Paige Hauschild wreaked havoc on the Sea Kings, finishing with seven goals and four steals. Three of Hauschild’s goals came in the first quarter, when San Marcos earned the five-goal advantage.
“We talked about needing to be ready for those first couple of minutes,” CdM Coach Kevin Ricks said. “The opportunities we had didn’t really turn into goals, and it fed those early chances for them. That was the tough part.”
The fourth San Marcos goal, by University of Michigan-bound senior Brittany Prentice, was lucky. It went off Chloe Harbilas’ field block and into the net with 1:44 remaining in the quarter.
“I guess we came out ready to play today,” San Marcos Coach Chuckie Roth said. “It was pretty apparent that everyone wanted to play hard, and everyone was willing to take shots. We did get a deflection shot that ended up falling in. We got lucky on that shot, and I thought, ‘Maybe things are lined up for us today.’ I think that just gave us more confidence.”
The Sea Kings (20-9) got their first goal on sophomore Sophie Wallace’s wet shot from six meters with a minute left in the quarter. Still, CdM was down, 5-1, after a quarter. It was similar to the teams’ nonleague meeting at Santa Barbara High three weeks earlier, when the Sea Kings fell behind, 4-1.
“I think [we had] a lot of nerves, definitely,” senior Sarah Lawson said. “They played a great game. They were ready to come out right when the whistle blew, and we kind of were slow getting out, which hurt our mentality moving forward.”
Twice early in the second quarter Saturday, CdM had power-play chances to narrow its deficit to 5-2. But the first chance went wide, and the second went off the left post. CdM had made power-plays an emphasis in practice this week, Morgan said, but converted just one of its six opportunities with the extra player.
“Their defense is a little bit different than what we’ve been practicing this week,” Morgan said. “Paige really dominates the ‘one’ to ‘six’ lane, and that’s usually a huge factor in our six-on-five offense. We had to adjust to that.”
Hauschild added two more goals, giving San Marcos a 7-1 advantage by halftime. CdM fell behind, 11-1, in the fourth quarter before Lawson assisted Harbilas’ drive inside with 4:30 remaining in the game.
Wallace had two goals and three steals for the Pacific Coast League champion Sea Kings. Emily Ritner added one goal and two steals, while Harbilas added her goal and drew three exclusions. Junior goalie Erin Tharp had four saves and five steals.
Lawson had three assists and two exclusions drawn for CdM, while sophomore center Layne Anzaldo had a field block and a steal. Junior Riley Sidebotham also had a steal for the Sea Kings.
Prentice and junior Sarah Owens each scored twice for Channel League champion San Marcos. Sophie Trumbull made six saves.
CdM had to deal with adversity late in the season, even before Saturday, but managed to finish No. 6 in the final Division 1 poll and advance to the quarterfinals.
“Every season, you face different sorts of challenges,” Ricks said. “That’s kind of what high school sports is about ... I thought our girls had a terrific season. We played a lot of close, tight games with a lot of good teams.”
The five seniors, also including Brogan Stout and goalie Bryanna Yasui, said they would miss playing together. Ritner is headed to the University of Michigan, where she will join her older sister Heidi on the team.
“We spend so much time together, at least 25 hours a week between practices and games,” Morgan said. “I’ll just remember the moments in-between games. Our team is the weirdest, funniest group of girls, but we have so much fun together. They’re all my best friends.”
Twitter: @mjszabo
