Girls’ Water Polo: Tough loss for HB
It was a big day on Wednesday for the Huntington Beach High girls’ water polo team.
All five Oilers seniors signed with colleges. Lauren Smith and Bella Vucurevic are going to Marist, Ally Long to Wagner, Kalista Hyham to Bucknell and Anna Borton to Siena.
Huntington Beach Coach Mark Canner, in his fourth year in charge, was undoubtedly proud of every member of his senior class going to a Division 1 program.
“It was going to be a good day, no matter what,” Canner said. “It’s a big day for our program, a big day for our high school.”
As day turned to night, the Oilers battled back in a key Sunset League game against Los Alamitos before coming up just a goal short.
Los Al junior Bayley Weber scored the winning penalty shot with seven seconds left as the Griffins won, 10-9, at Newport Harbor High to knock the Oilers out of league title contention.
Huntington Beach (17-9, 2-2 in league), which lost in overtime to Newport Harbor two weeks ago, will again finish third in league. Los Alamitos and Newport Harbor are both undefeated at 4-0 in league, and will play for the outright title next Wednesday night.
Canner can be proud that his program is challenging the traditional powerhouses like Newport Harbor and Los Al in league. On Wednesday, he could also be proud of the way his team responded after a first-quarter blitz by the Griffins (16-6).
Sophomore Katie Dvonch scored twice as Los Alamitos, ranked No. 9 in CIF Southern Section Division 1, opened up a 4-0 advantage less than four minutes into the game. To their credit the Oilers, who are tied for 10th in the Division 1 rankings, did not back down.
“There’s a difference between a student-athlete and a student-athlete that is ready to play at the highest level,” Canner said. “A student-athlete playing at the highest level is not going to back down in that situation. It takes a long time to build a program that has the ability to have a player that looks you in the eyes and says, ‘We’re OK, we got this.’ You have to have coaches and leaders in the water, which we have. Sometimes, at the end of the day, the ball bounces in a way we don’t want it to. Tonight, I saw a lot of smiles, I saw a lot of girls competing.”
The Oilers ended the half with five unanswered goals. Courtney Heydorff fed Borton for the game-tying goal with 2:54 left in the half. Twenty-six seconds later, junior goalie Marina Hyham (eight saves) threw a long pass to junior Maddie Bockman, who rose and scored from five meters to give the Oilers a 5-4 halftime advantage.
The Oilers, paced by Smith, Kalista Hyham and Heydorff with two goals each, led throughout most of the second half. They took a 9-7 advantage with 4:33 remaining in the fourth quarter.
But Los Al responded with goals by Dvonch, then Madison Ravelo tied the score at 9-9 on a lob with 1:30 left to play. In the final minute, Ravelo got a steal at mid-tank and earned a penalty shot, which Weber, who had two goals and nine steals, put away with seven seconds remaining.
A final attempt by Marina Hyham with a second left sailed over the Griffins cage.
Huntington Beach plays at Carlsbad on Tuesday and closes out league play against Edison on Wednesday, then the Oilers can prepare for the Division 1 playoffs. Canner said the program has never won a postseason game.
But, no matter what happens the rest of the season, the legacy of the senior class is well-established.
“I know that they know that there’s a lot of girls in the future who are going to make sure we win this thing,” Canner said. “It’s a harder thing to build a program to this point than it is to get us over that little hump of a one-goal game. That’s something that we know will come down the road.”
Twitter: @mjszabo
