Orange Lutheran hands Laguna Beach girls’ water polo first loss
Two women with a combined four Olympic gold medals in water polo were on the Corona del Mar High pool deck Saturday afternoon.
CdM girls’ water polo coach Melissa Seidemann has three gold medals, and she watched as CdM served as host of a key nonleague match between Laguna Beach and Orange Lutheran.
First-year Orange Lutheran coach Brenda Villa, a four-time Olympic medalist widely regarded as one of the best female players in history, won gold in her last Olympics in 2012 in London.
“It’s really exciting to see these passionate women coaching women’s water polo,” first-year Laguna Beach head coach Claire Sonne said. “I think that’s something that the sport has needed for a long time, so it’s exciting to see them stepping up to the plate there.”
The high school equivalent to a gold medal is a CIF Southern Section championship. It’s early in the season, but Villa’s Lancers have perhaps established themselves as a team to beat after Saturday’s 8-6 victory over Laguna Beach.
UC Irvine-bound senior left-hander Sara Naulty scored five goals for Orange Lutheran (4-0), and freshman Allison Cohen scored twice. Sophomore Michelle Urkov added a goal.
Junior goalkeeper Lauren Steele made seven saves for the Lancers.
The Breakers had a 2-0 lead late in the first half on a goal by junior Ava Knepper, then a power-play strike from senior center Charlotte Riches assisted by sophomore Presley Jones. But the Lancers seized control of the match by scoring five straight goals from a stretch just before halftime into the third quarter.
“Brenda’s really big on keeping our composure,” said Naulty, the team captain. “When she calls timeouts or even in-between quarters, she’s really big on keeping our composure. If we have a really big run, we just need to keep that energy, and I think that’s what helped us. I know that all of us have each other’s backs, so if we get down or anything, we’re really big on bringing each other back up after going down.”
Laguna Beach (2-1) tried to rally in the matchup between the top-two ranked teams in Orange County, though that was made more difficult as Knepper and Myha Pinto fouled out in the second half.
First Laguna sophomore Kara Carver, then junior Emmy Hensley, drew penalty shots late in the third quarter. Jones put away the penalty shot each time, trimming Orange Lutheran’s lead to 5-4 entering the final frame.
Riches’ third goal pulled Laguna Beach within 6-5, but Orange Lutheran got a power-play goal and penalty shot from Naulty to pull back into a more comfortable position.
Senior goalkeeper Lauren Schneider had a standout game for the Breakers with 12 saves and three steals. But offensively, Laguna Beach saw chances slip away.
Laguna finished just two for eight on the power play, and converted two of three penalty shots.
“We needed to execute better, for sure,” Sonne said. “Missing a penalty is tough. Missing a six-on-five where their goalie was out is tough. We had the opportunities right there in front of us and we just couldn’t take advantage of it fully, couldn’t execute well enough today. But more than anything, more than the X’s and O’s for me, we need to improve on finding composure. That’s something that I know we will improve on.
“Once we level up in that sense, then I think the sky’s the limit for this team. We’re a team full of chemistry, full of big threats, but it’s about finding that composure for us.”
Laguna Beach is back in action when it plays at Mater Dei in a nonleague match Friday at 4 p.m.
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