Newport Harbor girls’ water polo sunk by Los Alamitos in league opener

Third-year head coach Brian Melstrom, who was also a longtime assistant coach, is aware that the Newport Harbor High name carries a lot of weight in girls’ water polo circles.

The program has won five CIF Southern Section Division 1 titles. But that has nothing to do with the current struggles of the 2017-18 squad.

“There’s always an expectation at Newport to be good,” Melstrom said. “That’s pressure for the girls, that’s pressure for the coaching staff, pressure for the fans and the parents. All of that means nothing until we truly start to pull it together.”

Coming off a rough 11th-place finish at the Holiday Cup tournament over the weekend, the Sailors had a showdown with Los Alamitos on Wednesday night in both teams’ Sunset League opener.

The result was perhaps more lopsided than expected, a 13-3 Los Alamitos victory that gave the Griffins the inside track on the third straight league title, and fourth in five years.

Senior Bayley Weber led the way with six goals and six steals for Los Alamitos (10-3 overall). Griffins coach Dave Carlson said the 10-goal margin was the biggest for his team against the rival Sailors since Newport Harbor joined the Sunset League in 2006-07.

Newport Harbor (6-5) got a counterattack goal from junior Annie Rankin with 2:46 remaining in the first quarter. At the time, it cut the Sailors’ deficit to 2-1, but they wouldn’t score again until junior center Linnea Kelly struck with 5:10 remaining in the fourth quarter. By then, Los Alamitos was fully in control with an 11-1 lead.

Katie Dvonch had three goals for the Griffins, while Kristin Weaver, Madison Ravelo, Nina Ham and Amara Maxwell had one goal each. Goalkeeper Tara Debrabander made a dozen saves.

“They played some pretty good defense out there,” Melstrom said. “In a nutshell, we weren’t quick enough to get the ball down the pool to beat that kind of stair-step, double-team kind of defense. I thought we had a good tactical plan coming into the game, we just weren’t communicating very well.

“I thought Carlson did a great job of getting his girls ready to play. They were all over the place, and I think we helped them.”

Carlson credited Eva Browning and Ravelo for their defensive efforts at limiting the Sailors at two meters. Los Alamitos shouldn’t have another challenge in league until Jan. 31, when it plays Huntington Beach, the third-place team from last season.

“I just thought the girls played with a lot of passion at the defensive end,” Carlson said. “They were just relentless at getting stops. When the girls play defense that well against a solid Newport team, we can afford to make some mistakes at the offensive end.”

Junior goalie Erin Ross made six saves for the Sailors, who also got a goal from senior Sara Barker, three steals from junior Kili Skibby and two steals each from Rankin and junior Karis Couch.

The defense of Weber helped hold Sailors senior captain Jessica Lynch scoreless. Carlson then put Weber, the Griffins’ backup goalie, in at that position with 58 seconds remaining in the game.

Newport Harbor will continue to learn on the job. The team has seven games in the next 10 days, starting with a nonleague game Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at the Bishop’s School in La Jolla. The Sailors return to league action Jan. 10 at 5 p.m. against Edison, before heading to the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions the following day.

“I think consistency is the main thing,” Melstrom said. “I don’t know the best way to get them to work better as a team right now. We’re doing the best we can. I think the girls generally like each other and respect each other, even respect their roles on the team. We’re just not executing very well.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo