Wald Scores Five Goals, Leads Rosary Past Santa Monica

Patience was the best virtue for the Rosary girls’ water polo team Thursday.

First the Royals waited out an annoying 29-minute delay in the start of their Southern Section Division III semifinal at Independence Park because of a power outage that caused the game clock and shot clock to malfunction. Then they methodically pulled out to a six-goal, third-quarter lead on their way to a 10-6 victory over Santa Monica.

Rosary advanced to meet University in Monday’s final at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

Although Santa Monica made a late surge, cutting the Royals’ lead to 8-6 with 3 minutes 21 seconds left in the game, Rosary effectively put this game in the bank with its fast start.

“We had seen them before and we thought we could attack them at two meters and that’s what we did,” Rosary Coach Todd Sprague said.

Julia Wald got the first of her five goals 30 seconds into the contest, throwing a shot past Santa Monica goalkeeper Cindy Ayala from the hole position.

A minute later teammate Natalie Golda beat Santa Monica defender Helen Kim and flipped the ball past Ayala. Wald got an empty-net goal at the 3:36 mark, when Ayala lost track of the ball in the sun. Then Wald sent a lob over Ayala’s head at the 5:25 mark of the second quarter.

Alissa Demmin made it 5-0 when she pushed the ball along the water past Ayala after a nice pass from Wald.

Wald made it 6-0 with about 4 1/2 minutes left in the third, but Santa Monica regrouped, and outscored the Royals, 6-2, in the next eight minutes.

But a quick set by Julia Henn to Wald after a whistle led to Rosary’s ninth goal and Wald returned the favor a minute later, feeding Henn for a goal.

Royal goalkeeper Britney DeGrazio had six saves and Santa Monica bounced a half dozen shots off the floating goals.

“Mainly, we weren’t ready to play,” Santa Monica Coach Matt Flanders said. “We were all amped up to get going and then we had to wait so long because of that clock thing and that had a lot to do with the disappointing fact that we weren’t up to par.”

In the other Division III semifinal:

University 8, Palos Verdes Peninsula 3--Morgan Voeltz and Erin Hayes scored two goals each for University. Amy Hilts had 16 saves for the Trojans (21-9).