High School Female Athlete of the Week: Rachael Carver dishes it out for Laguna Beach water polo
Rachael Carver has a knack for making the right play.
On a Laguna Beach High girls’ water polo team that has success because it does the little things well, the junior epitomizes those traits.
Carver leads the Breakers in assists with 26, and she is fourth in goals with 15. She was an integral part last weekend, as Laguna Beach dominated on its way to a seventh straight Bill Barnett Holiday Cup title.
Breakers coach Ethan Damato said she plays like a coach’s daughter, and that she is. Carver’s father is Rob Carver, who starred in water polo at Sunny Hills High and USC. The center was the CIF Southern Section Division 4A Co-Player of the Year as a senior at Sunny Hills in 1983. He went on to play at USC for four years, earning second-team All-American honors in 1988.
Carver’s three daughters — Rachael, Hannah and Kara — all play water polo. Hannah is a sophomore who is also on the Breakers varsity team, while Kara is a seventh-grader at Thurston Middle School who has been playing the sport for three years. In that time, she has won three USA Water Polo Junior Olympics titles with Laguna Beach, which is the same amount of gold medals that Rachael owns.
“We all have a good relationship,” Rachael Carver said. “It’s funny because Kara has only played for three years and she’s won all three years. [My parents] kind of give me a hard time about it, which is funny. But I think she does look up to me, and she enjoys coming to my games at times. Sometimes she’s forced there, but I think it’s cool for her to see one of the best teams in the country.”
Rob Carver, who remains involved as an age-group coach at Laguna Beach, also takes on a spectator role at the Breakers’ high school matches. Rachael said that sometimes he will text her suggestions during the match, which she can see afterward.
There has not been a lot to critique lately. Rachael Carver, a three-year varsity player, had three goals and four assists in the Bill Barnett Holiday Cup title match, a 15-8 romp over Santa Barbara San Marcos at Newport Harbor High on Dec. 28.
The Breakers start strong and rout San Marcos 15-8 in the title match Saturday.
The Breakers (11-0), the defending CIF Southern Section Division 1 champions who are again the top-ranked team in the Division 1 and 2 poll, won each of their four matches in the tournament by at least seven goals. Carver had tournament totals of six goals, seven assists and seven steals.
“She’s got a great vision just for the game in general, not just passing,” Damato said. “That’s something that we saw with her really early on. I think that was a key to her playing varsity as a freshman, and getting minutes for us. She was able to see open shooting lanes, and she was able to feed her teammates. That’s something we’ve always seen with her, but she’s kind of taken it to a new level this year. I think she understands the system really well and she’s not afraid to make a play, whether it’s taking a shot or making the right pass.”
Carver and fellow juniors Nicole Struss and Molly Renner each made varsity as freshmen, and they were top threats off the bench. Their cohesion isn’t an accident, as they started playing club water polo as 10-and-unders under the direction of Albie Beeler, and later on his brother, Chad.
“It started out the three of us, and then everybody started to play,” Carver said. “We just grew this huge family. I mean, we’re all here today. It’s kind of cool how much Laguna has grown from the beginning.”
There are 11 juniors on the Breakers’ 21-player roster. Contrast that to just three seniors, only one of which — UCLA-bound attacker Morgan Van Alphen — played in the Bill Barnett Holiday Cup. Princeton-bound defender Grace Houlahan was out with a shoulder injury, and Haley Parness is a backup goalkeeper.
Junior center Imani Clemons, attackers Emma Lineback, Emma Singer and Jessie Rose, and defender Kenedy Corlett are just a few of those who have improved substantially in the last year or two.
Lineback, a left-hander, leads the Breakers with 30 goals, followed by Struss (25), Renner (23) and Carver. Her all-around game does not go unnoticed.
“Not only can she put the ball in the back of the net, but Rachael does a lot of the little things for our team that don’t always get noticed, such as counterattacks,” Struss said. “She’s been playing really great defense as well. I’m really grateful to have someone like her on our team. You can’t have a successful team without somebody who can make the extra pass. She’s just a really selfless player and doesn’t always get the recognition. But even if she doesn’t put the ball in the back of the net, she’s always doing something. She’s just great.”
Carver hopes to help lead the Breakers to another Surf League title. The campaign begins with a match against Newport Harbor on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Corona del Mar High.
Laguna Beach is also going for its fifth Division 1 title in seven years. For every Olympian like Makenzie or Aria Fischer who has come through the program and had great success, there were several players like Rachael Carver who knew their roles and played them well.
“I play with my best friends every day, and I’ve played for eight years now,” Carver said. “I love having my best friends by my side, and I think Ethan is the best coach in the country for high school, and even overall. Having him as my coach, even for club, too [at SET], it’s so nice. I love playing the game. I think games are so much fun.
“I mean, it’s a lot of hard work, but the outcome and sensation of it is just something really special. I feel like not too many people get that in life, so it’s pretty special.”
Rachael Carver
Born: Dec. 17, 2002
Hometown: Laguna Beach
Height: 5 feet 5
Sport: Water polo
Year: Junior
Coach: Ethan Damato
Favorite food: Burritos
Favorite movie: “Aquamarine”
Favorite athletic moment: Helping Laguna Beach win the CIF Southern Section Division 1 title last year.
Week in review: Carver had totals of six goals, seven assists and seven steals as the Breakers went 4-0 at the Bill Barnett Holiday Cup, winning the tournament for the seventh straight year.
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