Girls’ Water Polo: Breakers dominate the field

Meet the new Holiday Cup champion.

Same as the old Holiday Cup champion.

The Laguna Beach High girls’ water polo team sure left no doubt about the top team in Orange County, at least at this point in the season.

The Breakers blitzed Orange Lutheran in the championship game, 14-2, to win their fourth straight Holiday Cup championship on Friday afternoon at Newport Harbor High.

Corona del Mar placed fourth in the 16-team tournament after losing to Mater Dei, 8-7, in the third-place game. Newport Harbor was eighth after falling to Foothill, 10-2, in the seventh-place game.

CdM’s junior varsity team placed 13th in the tournament after edging Rosary, 6-5, while Edison placed 16th following an 8-5 loss to Rancho Bernardo.

For Laguna Beach (8-0), it was a dominant run to the title. The Breakers also dominated Mater Dei, 17-3, in the semifinals earlier Friday.

Senior captains Claire Sonne and Bella Baldridge both scored four goals in the final against Orange Lutheran, which was played in a steady rain. The third senior captain, Olympian Aria Fischer, had three goals and three assists for the top-ranked team in CIF Southern Section Division 1.

“It’s just really a testament to our hard work,” Sonne said. “We’re really focusing on being a unit and playing as a team, and I think it shows. This team is just so connected and so together. I know it’s going to be a great year.”

Laguna swarmed the defending Division 1 champion Lancers, taking a 10-0 halftime lead. The Breakers showcased their depth, as Fischer didn’t score until the team was already up, 8-0, late in the first half. Juniors Sophia Lucas, Alex Peros and Isabel Riches all scored single goals for Laguna, with Lucas leading everyone with three steals.

Junior goalie Thea Walsh only had to make three saves, also recording three steals. The Breakers didn’t allow a natural goal, as Orange Lutheran’s Hannah Palmer and Alyse Tyler both scored on the power play.

One sequence late in the third quarter highlighted the Breakers’ quick passing, as junior Evan Tingler made a long pass to Baldridge on the right side. The lefty quickly whipped a pass inside to Lucas for the goal.

“What’s really nice with our team is that when we go up on counters, we do look to make the extra pass,” said Baldridge, a starter on each of the Breakers’ four Holiday Cup title teams. “When we come to these big games, we make those extra passes. The goalies that are really, really good, we can easily cross them up and score on them, because we make the extra passes. Our team is really unselfish.”

Fischer scored four goals in the semifinal win against Mater Dei, with Baldridge and Sonne both scoring three and combining for five assists. Peros also had a strong game, with two goals and four steals, while Walsh made 10 saves.

The Breakers, who play a nonleague game at Foothill on Thursday, have outscored their first eight opponents by an average of 15.5 goals. No game has been closer than 12 goals.

“I’m pretty elated right now,” Laguna Coach Ethan Damato said. “It’s a really satisfying feeling. I’m so proud of this group of girls; the way they played today was outstanding.

“I think it starts with our leaders. Aria passed the ball so well in that [final] game. Bella is one of the best passers out there, and Claire is about as unselfish as anybody I’ve ever met. It’s pretty contagious. We’ve got a group that really enjoys playing together and doesn’t really care who scores, just that we score. That’s fun to coach ... We’re seeing each other and making a concerted effort to see each other, which I think is making this a really special team.”

Still, Baldridge knows that the Breakers can’t get complacent as they go for their third Division 1 title in four years. Last year, they lost in the semifinals.

“Last year, we won this tournament and we kind of didn’t work well as a team by the end of the year, and other teams surpassed us by working as a team,” Baldridge said. “We don’t want to overlook any team or any tournament or anything. [We had] a lot of team drama [last year] and that just split us up, so we have to make sure we stay focused on our goal. So far, we’re doing great.”

CORONA DEL MAR

The Sea Kings (4-2) finished fourth in the Holiday Cup for the second straight year after dropping a pair of games Friday. They lost to Orange Lutheran, 11-6, in the semifinals before being edged by Mater Dei in the third-place game.

CdM played without its hero from Thursday night, sophomore Sophie Wallace, who was out sick. They also played most of the second half against OLu without senior captain Jaleh Moaddeli, after she was ejected from the game following a desk error. The desk workers had Moaddeli being excluded for the third time, though she actually had just two. On one of the exclusions credited to her, it was actually Sarah Lawson who had been kicked out.

Moaddeli had just scored on a counterattack to pull CdM within 6-4. Without her, they gave up three goals in the final three minutes of the third quarter to fall too far back of the Lancers.

“They kind of wore us down a little bit,” CdM Coach Kevin Ricks said. “You get into the middle of the third quarter and the fourth quarter and you’ve got two starters out, it definitely makes it a little bit more challenging. But the other side of that is that some of our younger players got quite a bit of experience today against two really good teams. That’s great to see.”

Moaddeli, Chloe Harbilas and Layne Anzaldo each scored twice for the Sea Kings against Orange Lutheran. Erin Tharp made seven saves and had three steals.

Harbilas scored a season-high five goals against Mater Dei, helping CdM nearly rally from a three-goal deficit entering the fourth quarter.

“I thought the girls did a good job today in both games,” Ricks said. “Some of these teams are pushing 10, 12 games on the season, and we’re still at No. 6. We still have a lot of water polo in front of us to grow and learn from.”

NEWPORT HARBOR

The Sailors (7-4) had a tough day Friday. Their offense sputtered in the early game, a 7-3 loss to Santa Barbara, as well as the 10-2 loss against Foothill. Newport Harbor was scoreless entering the fourth quarter against the Dons before Kaela Whelan, Jessica Lynch and Linnea Kelly all scored.

Similarly, Newport Harbor didn’t score its first goal against Foothill until 13 seconds left in the third quarter, when Lynch struck on a power-play goal. Kili Skibby scored the other goal for the Sailors, and Chloe Schilling made three saves.

“For some reason, we felt like we had to collapse in on two meters, and that’s not going to be the strength of our defense,” Newport Coach Brian Melstrom said. “I think that was one thing that was a difference in this tournament versus what we had been doing. It allowed other teams to get a lot more offense, and it really prevented us from getting down the pool and attacking the other end, when you’re constantly sitting back and dropping on two meters. It eliminates the counterattack, in some sense.”

The Sailors will have to bounce back, as they start Sunset League play at home against Edison on Wednesday night.

“It’s not like the season’s over,” Melstrom said. “This was our first tournament, and we knew that making the top eight, there was no easy game the rest of the way out. But we certainly hoped to play a little bit better, I think, especially today. We refocus on the middle third of the season now and get into league play, which is extremely important to us.”

CORONA DEL MAR “B”

CdM’s JV team impressed with its 13th-place finish. Freshman Kira Hoffman scored the game-winner in the 13th-place game against Rosary on the six-on-five, while sophomore Carter Britt led all scorers with 10 goals in the four tournament games.

Justin Papa coached the CdM squad.