Up Is Down and Down Is Up Among County’s Top Teams

Looking at recent girls’ water polo scoreboards, a natural reaction would be that the rankings were turned upside down. In the past 10 days, the county’s No. 1 team lost twice, the No. 2 team lost twice, the third-ranked team lost twice . . .

Supposed upsets abounded. But after talking to the participants, those results probably weren’t upsets.

“I’ve been telling you guys all year that there are a lot of really good teams out there,” Villa Park Coach John Carcich said after his team took over last week’s No. 1 ranking with a victory over then-No. 1 Newport Harbor in the Newport Harbor tournament final on Jan. 8.

Last week, then-10th-ranked El Toro helped prove Carcich’s point by defeating Villa Park convincingly, 6-1.

Also last week, fifth-ranked Irvine defeated second-ranked Newport Harbor, 4-2, and eighth-ranked Esperanza defeated third-ranked Foothill, 8-7.

“I think the top eight teams are all within one goal of each other,” Foothill Coach Dave Mikesell said.

The parity is so extreme that many coaches laughed when approached to vote in this week’s Orange County Coaches’ top 10, poll coordinator John Kulisich said.

So although Irvine lost to Foothill at last weekend’s Santa Barbara tournament, the Vaqueros climbed to the top of this week’s county rankings behind recent victories over Santa Margarita, Newport Harbor and Marina.

Perhaps the best example of the parity came in El Toro’s victory over Villa Park last week.

“I told our kids that I thought Villa Park was ripe,” El Toro Coach Don Stoll said. “They came off a great tournament that they won, and we had a horrible week, including that same tournament, when we lost four of five games.”

So the Chargers came in fired up and stifled the Spartans, including UCLA-bound senior Kristyn Pulver, who scored Villa Park’s only goal.

El Toro’s Keala Carter did the bulk of the defending on Pulver, and Stoll said she eagerly asked for the assignment before the game. Goalie Amanda Deatherage also sparkled.

“That night we played tenacious defense,” Stoll said. “Sure it was nice to win and the girls deserve to be excited for 24 hours or so. But this does nothing toward winning a league title, except maybe give them a little confidence.”

That confidence wasn’t enough for a second consecutive “upset” last week. Newport Harbor edged El Toro, 5-4, with Kyndra Cox scoring three fourth-quarter goals to lead a rally from a 3-1 deficit.

LOOKING AHEAD

The El Dorado TYR Cup tournament begins Thursday afternoon at both Belmont Plaza in Long Beach and El Dorado High School. The final is scheduled for Saturday at 4 p.m.

Another highlight for this week is No. 7 Capistrano Valley, led by junior Amber Stachowski, playing at No. 4 Newport Harbor at 3:45 p.m. Friday.

If you have an item or idea for the girls’ water polo report, you can fax us at (714) 966-5663 or e-mail us at:

mike.itagaki@latimes.com