Girls’ Water Polo: Third quarter dooms CdM
GOLETA — Mater Dei High girls’ water polo coach Chris Segesman got ribbed by the CdM fans a bit Friday night at Dos Pueblos High.
The Monarchs were playing the Sea Kings in a Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions quarterfinal game, and Segesman was upset with the official. For good reason, as no CdM player exited the pool on a Mater Dei power play in the first quarter. Segesman let the official know that he missed the call and kept talking to him, which led to one CdM fan yelling out for him to stop.
“Do you know the game?” Segesman asked, peering into the stands. “That should be a five-meter [penalty shot].”
Segesman was less agitated as the game went on, also for good reason. The Monarchs turned a close game into a blowout.
Mater Dei scored six unanswered goals in the third quarter and beat CdM, 14-10, to advance to the semifinals of the prestigious tournament. Mater Dei will play Dos Pueblos in the second tournament semifinal Saturday, at 12:15 p.m. at Dos Pueblos High.
Top-seeded Laguna Beach eased its way into the semifinals with a pair of wins, getting past M.L. King, 17-4, before routing Huntington Beach, 18-5, in the quarterfinals. Laguna will play San Marcos in the first semifinal at 11:10 a.m. It’s a rematch of a nonleague game that was won by the Breakers, 12-5, on Thursday night.
The championship game is scheduled for 4:35 p.m.
Huntington Beach plays Orange Lutheran in a fifth-place semifinal on Saturday at 9 a.m., while CdM plays Foothill in another fifth-place semifinal at 10:05 a.m. All top-eight games Saturday are at Dos Pueblos High.
Newport Harbor lost to San Marcos, 12-5, in the first round of the tournament and also fell to the The Bishop’s School, 10-5, in a consolation game Friday night. Jessica Lynch led the Sailors with two goals and two assists against San Marcos, with Linnea Kelly, Kili Skibby and Lissa Westerman also all scoring and Quincy Morgan adding four steals.
The Sailors will play M.L. King in a 13th-place semifinal Saturday at 9 a.m., at Santa Barbara High.
CdM beat Murrieta Valley, 5-2, in the first round of the tournament behind three goals from Jaleh Moaddeli and 15 saves from keeper Erin Tharp. The Sea Kings led Mater Dei by a similar score, 4-2, early in the second quarter of the quarterfinal game before the Monarchs took a 6-5 halftime advantage.
Close games are the norm for these two teams. CdM beat Mater Dei by a single goal last year in the TOC first round, and lost to the Monarchs by a goal earlier this season in the Holiday Cup.
“I think this game has gotten a lot more intense over the years,” said CdM junior Chloe Harbilas, who led the Sea Kings with four goals. “The match has become more of a rivalry for us. Instead of us and Newport, I feel like now it’s becoming us and Mater Dei … We were hungry to get that win, but it just didn’t work out for us.
“We were tired and things weren’t going our way [in the third quarter]. When that happens, we tend to not play to our potential. But I was proud that in the fourth quarter, we were actually starting to come back. We didn’t full on give up.”
Mater Dei dominated the third quarter, taking a 12-5 advantage after junior lefty Grace Thawley, who had a team-high five goals, drove inside and scored. Freshman Tea Poljak added four goals for Mater Dei and sophomore Brooke Banta, a Newport Beach resident, had a goal, two steals and two assists.
Sophie Wallace had three goals for CdM (7-3), Emily Ritner scored twice and Sarah Lawson added a goal. The Sea Kings cut their deficit to three goals late in the fourth quarter after a couple of deep strikes by Ritner, but ran out of time.
“At the quarter break, we were able to regroup and refocus,” CdM Coach Kevin Ricks said. “We did a nice job in the fourth quarter. What we’ve got to do is do a better job of that on the fly, in the middle of a quarter. If we make some mistakes or some things don’t go our way, we’ve got to be able to reset and make the adjustment a little bit sooner.”
CdM will need to regroup for Saturday against a tough Foothill team. The Sea Kings and Knights had a memorable game earlier this season at the Holiday Cup, with Wallace scoring a half-tank lob at the buzzer for the win.
“There’s no easy games the rest of the way out,” Ricks said.
Laguna Beach (12-0) still has not been seriously challenged this season headed into Saturday’s semifinals, winning every game by at least seven goals. Senior captains Aria Fischer, Bella Baldridge and Claire Sonne led the Breakers with three goals each against M.L. King, with Daniele Borelli, Alex Peros and Isabel Riches all scoring twice.
The Breakers are going for their third Tournament of Champions title in four years.
