Kunkel Leads Santa Margarita to Title

A third-quarter benching and a fourth-quarter outburst helped top-seeded Santa Margarita pull away and defeat unseeded Corona del Mar, 7-4, in the Southern Section Division IV girls’ water polo final Wednesday at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

Sophomore Kristina Kunkel scored three of her four goals in the fourth quarter and senior Jamie Kroeze scored twice to help Santa Margarita (24-6) win its first girls’ water polo section title after holding only a 3-2 lead through three quarters.

“All year long these girls gave us all the effort and energy they had,” Santa Margarita Coach Scott Taylor said. “They did another great job. I’m happy. I don’t know what else to say.”

With Santa Margarita clinging to a 2-1 lead late in the second quarter, Kunkel picked up her second major foul, forcing Taylor to hold her out for the entire third quarter.

But 15 seconds into the fourth quarter, Kunkel scored on a backhander from the hole to give the Eagles a 4-2 lead, then freshman Erika Figge scored on the counterattack off an assist from Clare Peyrebrune to make it 5-2 with five minutes 52 seconds remaining.

Twice in the fourth quarter, Corona del Mar (20-12) pulled to within two, but Kunkel answered with a goal each time.

After Corona del Mar freshman Daniela Digiacomo scored from the hole with 1:02 remaining to pull the Sea Kings to within two, at 6-4, Kunkel scored on another backhander, despite being double-teamed, with 46 seconds remaining to ice the victory.

“It was hard to watch the game in the third quarter,” Kunkel said, “especially one you really want to play in. But I know our team isn’t just one person. I knew Lauren Edwards would come in and step it up.”

Edwards made a steal in the final minute of the third, preserving a 3-2 lead and short-circuiting a six-on-five for Corona del Mar.

“Things started to turn around for us,” Kroeze said, “when we stopped trying to figure out how to beat them and focused on just playing as well as we could.”

Corona del Mar’s Danielle Carlson, Christina Hewko and Lauren Guthrie scored for the Sea Kings, who converted only one of six man-advantage opportunities.

“We started to run out of gas in the fourth quarter,” Corona del Mar Coach John Vargas said.