Girls’ Water Polo: CdM tops HB for 7th place

GOLETA --- Sophomore Reagan Pfeif picked up a steal, while fellow sophomore Carter Britt buried a shot from the left side of the pool. In goal, senior Bryanna Yasui made a nice save from close range.

These are not the usual performers for the Corona del Mar High girls’ water polo team, at least not on varsity. But the Sea Kings got a chance to use these reserves in the fourth quarter Saturday afternoon because the starters put them in a good position in the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions seventh-place game.

CdM beat Huntington Beach, 10-5, at Dos Pueblos High for seventh place in the tournament. Sea Kings junior goalie Erin Tharp earned all-tournament team honors.

Newport Harbor finished in 14th place after dropping the 13th-place game to Santa Margarita, 9-4.

Top-seeded Laguna Beach won the tournament for the third time in four years, besting Mater Dei, 11-6, in the championship.

For CdM (8-4), it certainly felt good to end the tournament with a win. Chloe Harbilas scored a team-best three goals in the seventh-place game, while senior Kelly Morgan and junior Parker Hoffman each scored twice. Seniors Jaleh Moaddeli and Emily Ritner scored one goal each, while Tharp made seven saves before Yasui entered in the fourth quarter.

Morgan scored on a post-up, something that surprised her mom, Liz, sitting pool-side.

“I’m not normally posting up and shooting from there, because I’m usually in center defense,” Kelly Morgan said with a smile after the game. “That was kind of a rarity, but that was pretty fun.”

The Sea Kings had fun in their final game, but not so much in the fifth-place semifinal against Foothill. The game was scoreless at halftime, but the Knights built a 4-0 lead late in the third quarter before Harbilas could score.

Sarah Lawson made a penalty shot in the fourth quarter that Harbilas drew, and Harbilas scored again with 1:50 left to pull CdM within 4-3. She had another chance with five seconds left in the game, but it glanced off the left post.

Foothill goalie Molly DiLalla stood out with 14 saves in the game.

“We hit some walls in this tournament, but I think we’re going to peak right when we need it, around CIF,” Morgan said. “We were creating great opportunities, but our confidence is lacking in our shots. That’s something that we’re definitely going to work on in practice, building each other up and working on how to finish.”

CdM Coach Kevin Ricks said overall, the weekend was beneficial for his team, even if the Sea Kings didn’t quite live up to their No. 7 seeding.

“The girls battled and played hard,” Ricks said. “It’s a process. Coming up and playing these games is great prep for the playoffs. That’s kind of the point of being up here, challenging yourself and facing some tough competition.”

Huntington Beach (12-4) also faced some tough competition in its first-ever appearance in the TOC. The Oilers impressed, battling Orange Lutheran before falling, 8-6, in a fifth-place semifinal.

Senior Ally Long and sophomore Courtney Heydorf each had two goals against Orange Lutheran, with team captain Lauren Smith and Kalista Hyham scoring one goal each.

Hyham had two goals and two steals in the seventh-place game against CdM, while Smith, Maddie Bockman and Emily Tucker also scored.

Oilers junior goalie Marina Hyham concluded a strong tournament with eight saves against CdM. She stopped a five-meter penalty from Laguna senior Aria Fischer in Friday night’s quarterfinal loss.

“It hit me right in the head,” Hyham said. “That was crazy. It was one of the best moments of my water polo career, so it was exciting. I mean, she’s an Olympian.”

Overall, Hyham was pleased with the team’s weekend. Huntington Coach Mark Canner said the team had a strong tournament defensively, with Marina Hyham and two-meter defender Heydorf playing well.

“We’ve never played in this tournament before, never got invited,” Marina Hyham said. “This is our first time being in a big tournament, and placing top eight is a really big accomplishment … We’ve been playing as a team. This year has been so cohesive with each other.”

The Oilers can now prepare for Wednesday night’s key Sunset League game at Newport Harbor. Both teams are 2-0 in league. Huntington Beach has never beaten Newport in program history, Canner said.

“It’s going to be a great game,” Canner said. “But you know, for us, I look at that game as just another game. I know it’s Sunset League and everything like that, but the culture of our team this year is that we’re not trying to be too up, too down. We want to stay consistent and just enjoy playing water polo.”

Newport Harbor junior Sarah Barker and sophomore Annie Rankin each scored twice as the Sailors beat M.L. King, 7-6, in a 13th-place semifinal Saturday at Santa Barbara High.