No Splash in the Pan

When it comes to water polo, Erin Hayes does everything fast. She’s her team’s fastest swimmer. She even learned the game quickly.

And Hayes also likes to rapidly dodge the spotlight, something that makes her coach cringe.

“She’s one of the best-kept secrets in the county,” University Coach Mike Reid said. “That’s because she’s so modest and she’s so quiet. But she’s played against the best players in the county and she’s shut them down.

“Just nobody knows about her.”

Hayes has been playing for three years, but she led the Trojans to their second consecutive league title this season.

“Two years ago, this was just a side thing,” said Hayes, a senior whose brother Dan plays water polo at UC Irvine. “I remember the first game I played, I was lost. I didn’t know what was going on. But it came to me pretty easily and I picked it up.”

Although Hayes has always been a swimmer, and still swims for University’s team, she never played water polo until she arrived at the school. But even her brother said it wasn’t his pointers that helped her reach proficiency so quickly. She just had a knack for the sport.

Hayes was the Sea View League’s MVP last season and has scored 90 goals for second-seeded University (18-9), which defeated Katella, 13-5, in the second round of the Southern Section Division III playoffs Thursday.

And Reid is baffled why a 5-foot-8, two-meter player, who is strong, fast and boasts a powerful shot, wasn’t getting more recruiting attention.

“In fact, Nick Baba, who is one of the water polo officials, told me he was going to contact UCLA Coach Guy Baker and tell him about Erin,” Reid said.

Hayes said UC Davis and Loyola Marymount have contacted her, but she’s still waiting.

Even if some recruiters don’t know much about Hayes, there are plenty of people aware of her abilities. Just ask Rosary Coach Todd Sprague, whose team is top-seeded in Division III and could meet University in the final.

“She’s fast, she’s big, she’s smart,” Sprague said. “She’s always moving. And if you let her have some space, she’ll find a way to beat you.”

Hayes uses her speed to beat most opponents. Reid said Hayes has won 99 of 107 sprints that start every quarter.

“They use her on the sprints and most teams don’t use their two-meter players to do that,” Sprague said. “That’s sprinting all-out for 12 1/2 meters, then you have to go down and grind it out at two meters.

“They ask a lot of her, but you can see why she’s one of the best players in the division.”

Hayes has her sights set on the Division III title and she and her teammates have been gearing up for the two weeks of playoffs since last year.

“Ever since we heard that [the Southern Section] was going to have playoffs, we’ve been aiming toward this,” Hayes said. “It’s exciting being seeded second, but we’re looking at each game. We can’t expect to walk over anybody.”

Reid made sure complacency wouldn’t become an issue, scheduling tough opponents throughout the season. The majority of University’s losses were to Division I teams, including twice each to Newport Harbor and Irvine and once to Marina.

But the Trojans learned from each of those losses and Hayes more than held her own.

“Against Marina, when she was matched up with Jenny Lamb, Erin shut her out,” Reid said. “Same thing with Newport Harbor’s Alden Moore and Villa Park’s Kristyn Pulver.”

That competition has helped push Hayes.

“I think she got a taste of what that next level was like,” Reid said. “And she’s been getting stronger, hitting the weights, working harder . . .

“Erin leads by example. Everyone on our team admits she is our strongest player out there. And then if they see that she doesn’t quit on something, they think, ‘Why can’t we do that too?’ ”