Everything Is Within Hilts’ Reach

The four-meter penalty shot is a water polo goalie’s worst nightmare.

The opposing team’s best shooter lines up slightly more than 12 feet away, free to fire away at will. Only the goalie is between the shooter and a goal.

It results in a score about, oh, 99% of the time.

But Amy Hilts, the goalie at University High, has a secret: She likes facing four-meter shots.

Her save on a penalty shot in a 4-3 Southern Section Division IV quarterfinal victory Tuesday against El Dorado was crucial in helping University advance to today’s semifinal against Santa Monica. The game begins at 3:15 p.m. at Manhattan Beach Mira Costa High.

“Blocking a four-meter is my favorite thing to do,” Hilts said. “If it goes in, it doesn’t really matter. The pressure is off the goalie because everyone expects the person to score.”

While Hilts has been impressive against four-meter shots this year, having blocked four of them and forcing many others wide or high, her prowess in the cage does not end there.

She can stop just about any kind of shot. She can also pass the length of the pool with pinpoint accuracy and come out of the goal to attack and force turnovers.

She has excellent mobility, instincts and natural talent, and at 5 feet 10 can cover a good portion of the goal.

She has led University to impressive victories over Capistrano Valley and Newport Harbor, which are ranked Nos. 1 and 3 in Orange County, and has earned the reputation as the top girls’ goalie in Orange County.

“She has tremendous instincts,” Trojan Coach Mike Reid said. “So much of playing goalie is gut instinct and she’s got it. She has a good sense of where she needs to be and where her hands need to be and she can get up nearly a foot over the top of the cage.”

With an average of 15 saves this season and several games of 20 or more, Hilts is the type of goalie who strikes fear into opposing coaches.

“You can do everything right on offense and a good goalie will stop you,” said Rosary Coach Todd Sprague, who led Rosary to victory over University in the Division III final last year.

“You get shots that normally go in and she stops them. That’s hard to account for as a coach. You can teach a team how to run an offense, but a goalie like Amy can change a game.”

While Hilts has established herself as a top-notch goalie in a short time--the senior started playing as a freshman--it is amazing she is playing at all.

The year before she started, she had reconstructive surgery on both knees to correct a defect that caused her knees to randomly dislocate.

“They would just pop out of the socket,” she said. “I’d be walking and I would just fall. I’ve got the scars to prove it.”

Surgery and brutal year-long rehabilitation has improved, but not entirely corrected, the problem. The random dislocations would occur two to three times a week before the surgery, it’s now two to three times a month.

“I just pop it back in and go on,” she said.

When she first started playing goalie, Hilts had a lot to learn.

Before her first game, she thought the ball had to hit the back of the goal for it to count rather than just cross the mouth of the goal. Her outlet passes would sometimes hit players in the back of the head as they swam down the pool.

Hilts often asked Reid when she was going to get to play in the field. Now, she says she loves playing goalie and can’t imagine playing any other position, though her description of what being a goalie is all about makes you wonder why.

“Goalie is 99% boredom and 1% terror,” she said.

She couldn’t pinpoint the real reason she likes it so much, joking that the reason is because it’s far less physically demanding than playing the field.

“It’s a lot easier than the other positions,” she said. “I don’t have to swim back and forth and I’m not getting beat up all the time. Plus, I don’t get subbed out.”

Having a goalie like Hilts enables University to run defenses other teams can’t. The Trojans will often drop around their opponents’ best players and leave outside shooters open, confident Hilts can handle their shots.

“We’re going to let you shoot the ball,” Reid said. “We’re almost challenging teams to score from the outside because we know Amy is back there.”

That style also translates into an effective counterattack. As soon as a shot goes up, University players streak toward the opposing goal.

“She really makes the team better,” team captain Hayley Sudeith said. “We don’t have to send so many people back on defense and some of us can go out on a counter. And Amy has the ability to pass the ball just where you need it. With Amy, there are no weaknesses.”

That includes four-meter shot defense.