Capistrano Valley Reaches Quarterfinals

The most dangerous team in the Southern California Invitational girls’ water polo tournament is not one of the top four seeded teams.

It’s not even seeded in the top eight.

No, the team making the most noise after the first two rounds of this 32-team tournament is Capistrano Valley, seeded fourth in its bracket.

But after a convincing 12-7 victory over Long Beach Wilson in the second round Thursday at El Toro High, the Cougars served notice that they intend to make a run.

The Cougars (15-6), who lost, 7-6, to Wilson earlier this season, will play Santa Monica in the quarterfinals today at 6 p.m. at El Toro High. The semifinals and final are Saturday at Heritage Park in Irvine.

“This is big for us,” Cougar Coach Craig Fransen said. “We feel we’ve improved quite a bit over the last two or three weeks and it’s real important for us to do well in this tournament.”

If their performance against Wilson (17-5) is any indication, the Cougars should do fine.

Ashley Stachowski scored seven goals and Amber Stachowski had two goals, but it was the Cougar defense that shined in this game.

The Cougars shut down Wilson’s top scorer Cassie Azevedo by packing the two-meter zone with up to four defenders. Wilson began firing away from the outside, but goalie Xina Gleason was up to the task.

Gleason, who is in her first season as a goalie, had nine saves--many of them one-handed lunges at the last moment.

“She’s getting better and better every game,” Fransen said. “You can’t play that kind of defense if you don’t have a good goalie.”

Capistrano Valley also got key goals from the outside by Cori Ehrlich, Kinder Powers and Sam Shepard.

“A lot of this went well for us,” Fransen said. “We’re playing pretty well right now.”

Thursday’s game, played in a steady rain, would have made for a good quarterfinal or semifinal matchup had the tournament been seeded differently.

The Bruins, top-seeded in their bracket, were a Southern Section Division I finalist last season. They held the No. 1 ranking in the division early this season and are now No. 5.

But Capistrano Valley, which dropped to No. 9 in the Division I rankings three weeks ago but has climbed to No. 3 in the latest poll, thrives on big games.

The last three victories for the Cougars are against Newport Harbor, ranked No. 1 at the time, Santa Barbara, ranked No. 1 in Division II, and Wilson. The tournament brackets were announced before that Cougar streak.

“This was a bad draw for the second round,” Fransen said. “But our girls get really excited playing against the top teams.