Sage Hill boys’ water polo falls to Mater Dei in CIF quarterfinals, ends season
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The Sage Hill School boys’ water polo team was fired up to host Mater Dei Thursday night in the second round of the postseason, where the substantial difference in playoff acumen between the two programs was on full display.
Mater Dei has won seven CIF Southern Section championships, while Sage Hill was making its first appearance in the second round of Division 1.
The Lightning showed they belonged, but a slow start hurt as they lost 11-8 to end their season.
Mater Dei (15-13) moves on to play Harvard-Westlake in the Division 1 semifinals on Wednesday.
Sage Hill (21-6) had its best squad in coach Pavle Filipovic’s nine-year tenure.
The Lightning pushed an Open Division team, Laguna Beach, in the Pacific Coast League before settling for second place. They then earned their first Division 1 playoff win, 14-12, at Yucaipa on Oct. 31, to set up the showdown with Mater Dei.
“We’ve made it a point to instill discipline among ourselves, and really try to work together as a cohesive unit,” said Sage Hill senior left-handed attacker Luke Weichert, bound for UC Irvine. “Everybody came together and worked really, really hard to get to where we are now, which is awesome. I couldn’t be prouder of all of my teammates. They all stepped up.”
Mater Dei, the third-place team from the Trinity League, took a 5-1 lead in the first quarter of Thursday’s match. Senior Noah Jurgensen and junior Ace Chen both scored a pair of goals in the barage. Jurgensen, also a UCI commit, finished with a match-high five goals for the Monarchs.
Sage Hill rallied to within 9-7 late in the third quarter on a quick strike from five meters by sophomore Bobby Ray, who led the Lightning with three goals. But the hosts couldn’t get closer.
“I think the occasion was big, for sure,” Filipovic said. “Maybe some guys were a little nervous, but we just had a slow start. That definitely didn’t help us … They’re obviously a really good team. At the end of the day, they controlled the game well. They scored when they needed to, and they made stops as well.”
Sophomore Aaden Hoang added two goals for the Lightning, who also got a goal each from junior Christian Lu, sophomore Jax Postiff and Weichert. The Monarchs pressed hard against Weichert, who scored 111 goals this season.
Sophomore goalkeeper Noah Rothbard made 12 saves for Sage Hill, which will return most of its core group, minus Weichert and fellow senior Ben Chen, next year.
“I was dreaming about this since the beginning of the season, and it’s crazy that it happened,” Rothbard said. “I really wanted to play a Trinity League top team like Mater Dei, and now look at where we are ... I’m excited for what’s to come. I think we can keep it going.”
