Burroughs girls’ water polo has tough CIF road ahead

Despite finishing second in the Pacific League behind the CIF Southern Section Division V tournament’s top seed in Crescenta Valley High, Burroughs did not exactly get a favorable draw when Sunday’s playoff pairings were released.

But Indians Coach Danny Garcia finds himself “pretty happy” with playing Los Padres League champion Lompoc Cabrillio in the first round on Wednesday at 5 p.m., but was disappointed that it will be on the road.

“I kinda assumed we would be home because we played at home last year after we finished second,” said Garcia, whose Indians were one of four second-place teams out of six in the division that got road matches. “I was a little sad we didn’t get a home game, the girls were looking forward to it, but oh well, it is what it is, we’ll make a day out of it.”

Garcia admits he doesn’t know much about Cabrillo (18-7), which has won 11 straight league titles, but after finding some of his opponent’s results believes Wednesday’s a winnable matchup.

“I think we’ll match up pretty well,” said Garcia, whose team is 13-9 and advanced to the quarterfinals last season before losing to Redlands East Valley.

The winner will advance to Saturday’s quarterfinal round, where it will likely face second-seeded Riverside Poly or a wild-card entrant – either Redlands or Gahr.

While Garcia admitted he doesn’t know much about Lompoc, he’s hoping the Indians are also a mystery to their opponent.

“I hope they don’t know too much about us, except I’m sure they know we have a good goalie,” Garcia said.

Goalie Ahsha Earwood has been exceptional for the Indians, with Yesi Esparza and Emilee Holgate also providing steady contributions in the field. Though the Indians are coming off a 14-1 loss to Crescenta Valley in the league tournament championship, Garcia still thinks his team has been playing well as of late.

“I feel fantastic,” said Garcia of how is team is playing. “Of course we had a hard loss against CV, but we had a very strong win against Glendale [in the tournament semifinals].

“I think if we keep playing how we’ve been playing with our defense, we’ll be good. I feel very confident with the team I have and I know the girls’ heads are up.”