Newport Harbor girls’ water polo falls in regional semifinals
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SANTA ANA — A physical girls’ water polo match broke out Thursday night, between two teams seeking a bit of redemption.
Eighteen exclusions, four penalty shots and one red card later, host Mater Dei earned a 9-7 win over Newport Harbor in a CIF Southern California Regional Division I playoff match.
The loss ended the season for the Sailors (27-5), who fell in the same round as they did in the CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs the week before.
“What we talked about before the game was just coming out and competing,” Newport Harbor coach Ross Sinclair said. “That was the challenge — let’s just compete — and that’s it. I thought the girls did a really good job of that. I was really proud of them, and I told them that after the game. That’s a trait that we want to have with us forever, and that’s a trait that this program embodies.
“Regardless of the situation, we want to compete, and we did. I thought we left everything in the pool, which is great.”
Stanford-bound senior attacker Kirra Pantaleon scored a match-high seven goals for Mater Dei (30-3), which will play San Marcos for the regional title at 2 p.m. Saturday at Long Beach City College. San Marcos upset top-seeded Oaks Christian, the Open Division champion, 11-10 in the other regional semifinal.
USC-bound senior goalkeeper Sienna Sorensen made 15 saves for the Monarchs.
“She’s rock solid, man,” said Mater Dei coach Chris Segesman, who missed the fourth quarter due to the aforementioned red card he was issued. “She makes so many saves and makes it look so easy. We’re going to miss her big-time next year. And [Newport Harbor senior goalkeeper] Sunny [Brown] played well today, too. I thought it was a good battle.”
Brown, a transfer from Mater Dei, made eight of her nine saves in the second half. Junior attacker Kennedy Fahey led Newport Harbor with three goals, with fellow junior Emerson Mulvey adding two and seniors Sophia Verdugo and Kylie Robison contributing one goal each. Junior center Gabby Alexson was scoreless, but drew at least four exclusions and a penalty shot.
Newport Harbor never led. Mater Dei opened up a 5-2 lead late in the third quarter on an outside lob from Pantaleon, but the Sailors pulled within a goal after back-to-back strikes from Mulvey and Robison.
The Monarchs, despite missing their head coach in the fourth, had an answer. Maggie Ryan scored a power-play goal, then Pantaleon struck outside off a foul to boost the lead back to three goals.
“We wanted that next shot at potentially getting a win in the last game of our season,” Fahey said. “Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, but it’s OK. [Mater Dei] played very well the whole game. It can definitely take momentum away from them that their head coach wasn’t there, but I thought they did a really good job of staying focused. It was a battle for everyone, but they did play very well.”
The Sailors graduate some key seniors, but also had plenty of sophomores and juniors contributing.
“We’ve had some hard losses this season, so I think it’s just going to make us that much more driven to give it our all next season,” Fahey said. “We’re not a team to back down from a fight. We’re going to give it our all.”
