Dries, USA Women’s National Team, win gold

Former Laguna Beach High water polo player Annika Dries was part of the USA Women’s Senior National Team that won the gold medal Saturday at the FINA World League Super Final in La Jolla.

Team USA defeated Australia, 12-11, in the second shootout between the teams in the tournament, to win the gold. Dries, who now plays for Stanford, scored a goal in a 9-7 win July 2 over Greece that advanced Team USA to the Super Final. She also scored a first-quarter goal when Team USA opened the tournament June 29 with an 11-9 win over the Greeks and posted two goals in a 12-9 win July 1 over Russia.

Dries is one of two centers on the Team USA Women’s Senior National Team, along with Kami Craig of Santa Barbara.

“It was very exciting,” Dries said of the tournament. “We faced teams that had different styles of play and I got a lot of great game experience that will only help me in the future.”

The World League Super Final began June 28 and concluded Saturday at the Coggan Family Aquatic Complex. Teams from Australia, Canada, China, Russia, Hungary, the Netherlands and Greece competed in the event.

Team USA is coached by former UCLA head coach Adam Krikorian.

Summer tennis sessions underway

A variety of summer sessions is underway through Laguna Beach Tennis.

Quick Start Tennis is designed to bring youngsters into the game and is divided into two different levels, ages 8-and-under and 10-and-under.

The next level is the Junior Performance Team that is open to youth ages nine to 13. The High Performance Coed Tennis Camp is designed for boys’ and girls’ varsity and junior varsity high school players. The camp includes On Court and Off Court training.

A tournament will be held at the end of each month during the summer. Session dates for all three levels are as follows: Monday through Thursday (July 12-15); July 19-22; July 26-29; Aug. 2-5; Aug. 9-12; Aug. 16-19. The cost for the High Performance Coed Tennis Camp is $200 per weekly session. Class sessions run between 7 and 10 a.m. Monday through Thursday.

The cost for both Quick Start Tennis and Junior Performance Tennis is $120 per weekly session. Class sessions run between 10 a.m. and noon Monday-through-Thursday.

For more information, call Laguna Beach Tennis directors Alec Horton (949) 350-3185 or Aaron Talarico (949) 813-3813, or e-mail alechorton@mac.com or ndrico@yahoo.com. Additional information is available at https://www.lagunabeachtennis.net.