High School Female Athlete of the Week: Emma Marsh was a record-setter for Marina water polo

The Marina High girls’ water polo team accomplished history on a team level this season.

The Vikings won the CIF Southern Section Division 6 title, the program’s first since 1998. They qualified for the CIF Southern California Regional Division III tournament and again impressed, beating Eagle Rock in the first round before suffering a 3-2 sudden-death overtime loss to Imperial Beach Mar Vista in the semifinals.

A record-breaking team season also featured a record-breaking individual performance by senior goalkeeper Emma Marsh.

A four-year starter who didn’t miss a match her senior year, Marsh delivered time and again for the Vikings (22-12). She made a CIF Southern Section-record 452 saves this season, surpassing the 426 by Meghan Lopez of Brea Olinda in 2017-18.

For her career, Marsh made 1,273 saves. That places her second in Southern Section annals, only behind Lopez’s 1,462 stops from 2015-19.

“Isn’t that insane?” Marina coach Tamara Towgood said. “It’s absolutely amazing. And honestly, if you’re on the pool deck with her, she’s just so humble and nonchalant about it. I’m like, ‘Do you understand that you are a legitimate beast?’ And she’s like, ‘I’m just here to have fun.’”

Marsh, one of three seniors for Marina along with Makenna Reynolds and Rianne Gear, had plenty of fun for the Vikings. She’s done that ever since she started playing the sport at age 11. She joined Huntington Beach Water Polo Club. After about three months of playing in the field, she was stuck at goalkeeper during a scrimmage. She never looked back.

“I liked playing goalie right away,” Marsh said. “I’m not a very aggressive person. When they put me in the goal, I was like, ‘OK, I don’t have to fight anyone.’”

What the Vikings had to fight was earning respectability. After they finished 14-14 in Marsh’s freshman year, the head coach resigned. Towgood, who had been the assistant coach, took over the program in Marsh’s sophomore year of 2017-18. The Vikings struggled to a 4-22 record.

The last two years, Marina finished third in the four-team Wave League, behind Huntington Beach and Edison. As the team was over .500 this year, the Vikings earned an at-large berth into the Division 6 playoffs, and were awarded the No. 3 seed. It would be Marsh’s first and only playoff appearance of her high school career.

“We had two freshmen that came in [Lily Ensley and Taylor Lambert] that had played club and knew what we were doing,” Marsh said. “We were like, ‘OK, we have potential.’ Our coach had mentioned that CIF was a possibility for us, but we all kind of didn’t think about it because we had never made it that far.”

Once the Vikings got in, they won a series of tight matches. Marsh made a season-high 23 saves in a 9-6 quarterfinal win over Pasadena. The Vikings went on to beat No. 2 El Modena 8-7 in the semifinals and La Cañada Flintridge Prep 6-4 in the title match.

“We did a lot of confidence-builders and stuff,” she said. “Toward the end of CIF, we were only talking as if we were going to win. It was fun to talk to people that weren’t part of our team. It got super-confusing. We were like, ‘When we win, we play at 3.’ They were like, ‘When you win?’ But whenever someone would say, ‘if,’ we’d get mad.”

The girls’ water polo team became the second Marina team to win a CIF championship this school year. The football team was the Division 9 champion, and Marsh said that all-purpose junior Dane Brenton is one of her close friends.

Marsh said she doesn’t plan to play water polo next year at Orange Coast College, though she might get back into the sport later on. Towgood said she hopes that’s the case.

“I think her stability and consistency in the goal helped the girls play more freely, more aggressively and actively,” Towgood said. “When you have a goalie that can block and throw, you’re going to be good. I think just knowing that she was there gave the girls a lot of confidence. She has a super-awesome, sparkly, bubbly personality that is just contagious.”

Emma Marsh

Born: Dec. 20, 2001

Hometown: Huntington Beach

Height: 5 feet 9

Sport: Water polo

Year: Senior

Coach: Tamara Towgood

Favorite food: Pizza

Favorite movie: “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”

Favorite athletic moment: Helping Marina win the CIF Southern Section Division 6 title.

Week in review: Marsh made 41 total saves in two matches as Marina advanced to the CIF Southern California Regional Division III semifinals before losing 3-2 in sudden-death overtime to Imperial Beach Mar Vista.

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