Rare shutout gives La Cañada water polo share of league title
La Cañada High goalie Carolyne Stern stops a San Marino shot.
It was a dominant performance and exactly what the La Cañada High girls’ water polo team was looking for.
In their final regular season match, the Spartans saved their best for last and picked up some hardware in the process.
La Cañada completely dominated its contest against San Marino on Monday afternoon from start to finish, turning in a superb defensive performance and rolling to a 14-0 Rio Hondo League road victory.
The win was significant for the Spartans (18-6, 7-1 in league) — ranked No. 2 in CIF Southern Section Division V — because it gave them a share of their first league championship since 2009. It is also just the program’s fourth league crown.
Temple City (18-4, 5-1), the fourth-ranked team in the division, can claim its share of the title with league wins Tuesday at home against Monrovia and Wednesday at San Marino.
“We did what we had to do today and I’m proud of what the girls have been able to accomplish this season,” La Cañada Coach Davey Brown said. “As the season has gone on, we have just grown so much together as a team.
“Coming from where we were three years ago to where we are now, it’s just such an improvement going from getting spanked by teams, 22-0, to winning like we did today, it’s just great.”
The road to the league title started off with a major speed bump for the Spartans, who lost their opener to Temple City, 14-10, in overtime. However, since that setback, La Cañada won its final seven league contests, culminating with Monday’s victory against San Marino (6-13, 0-7).
“When we lost that first league game, we were pretty disappointed,” said Spartans freshman Mimi Zwaneveld, who tallied a match-high five goals. “That kind of kick-started us and let us know that we couldn’t lose any more league games the rest of the way. ... It just feels great to be able to win league.”
La Cañada received three goals from freshman Caroline Daniels, two from freshman Madison Solares and one each from freshman Julia Nicholls, sophomores Faith Flores and Kelly Phelan and senior Drew Nichols. Freshman Genevieve Fraipoint had four steals.
Although the La Cañada offense played well, it was the team’s defense that led the way, paced by freshman goalkeeper Carolyne Stern, who made 13 saves. The Titans missed all 21 of their shots.
“I was running in my subs the whole time and they were still able to play great defense and hold the other team scoreless,” Brown said. “It was a really big game for our goalie to be able to stay in there with all the subs and not give up a goal, that was big. But the subs, as well, did a great job.”
Three goals by Zwaneveld and one by Daniels put the Spartans in front, 4-0, after the first quarter.
It was an efficient second quarter for the Spartans, who connected on five of their eight shots to go into halftime with a comfortable 9-0 advantage.
La Cañada tallied three more goals in the third quarter for a 12-0 lead and tallied two in the fourth.
San Marino had its share of prime scoring opportunities. Early in the fourth quarter, Natalie Hoens hit the near post with a shot with 5:45 left and banked one off the far post with 4:14 remaining. The Titans had a man-advantage situation with 2:56 left, but a shot by Marika Brunochelli was stopped by Stern. San Marino had another man-advantage with 34 seconds remaining, but a shot by Valeria Diaz was easily handled by the goalkeeper.
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Jeff Tully, jeff.tully@latimes.com
Twitter: @jefftsports
