Top-Ranked Irvine Falls to No. 4 Rosary in Sudden Death

The game was so good that you didn’t want it to end, and toward the end you began to wonder if it would.

With just more than a minute remaining in the third sudden-death overtime period, the water polo thriller between Rosary, ranked fourth in Orange County, and No. 1 Irvine finally did end.

Meghan Monahan drilled a 20-foot shot to the lower left corner that grazed off the finger tips of goalie Kelly Graff and gave Rosary a 5-4 victory in the quarterfinals of the Southern California Invitational tournament Friday night at Heritage Park in Irvine.

Rosary (17-2), ranked No. 1 in Southern Section Division IV, will play Santa Barbara, ranked No. 1 in Southern Section Division II, in a semifinal game at 10 a.m. today. The other semifinal between Newport Harbor and Capistrano Valley is at 11 a.m. The final is at 3:30 p.m.

“Three weeks ago Meghan would have been [scared] when faced with that shot,” Rosary Coach Todd Sprague said. “But now it’s an automatic shot.”

Graff actually had the shot blocked momentarily, but tipped it into the goal post and it rebounded off the back of her arm and into the goal. Monahan, who also scored in the fourth quarter to give Rosary a 4-3 lead, was surprised the game-winner went in.

“I thought I was just going to shoot it and then swim back to play defense,” she said.

That’s because neither goalie allowed many shots to go in.

Graff had 14 saves. Rosary goalie Britini Degrazio had 10. Each of the first two overtime periods ended on saves by Degrazio. Regulation ended on a save by Graff.

Degrazio paid a price, however, after taking a ball off her face early in the second overtime. She remained in the game, but went to a hospital immediately after the game unable to move her jaw.

“She’s been going through some hard times as goalies do during a season,” Sprague said. “But she really saved us today.”

Irvine (19-3) had some chances late, but several Vaquero shots hit the posts, the crossbars and sailed over the top of the goal--when Degrazio wasn’t blocking them.

“It’s the same thing that has plagued us all season,” Vaquero Coach Scott Hinman said. “Our tactics are fine, our positioning is fine and we have the shots, we just can’t put the ball away.”

Julie Henn had three goals for Rosary, two in the second quarter. Nicole Huszcz had two goals for Irvine. Alexis Hanson scored for the Vaqueros with 2:19 left in regulation to tie the score, 4-4.

In other quarterfinal games:

No. 4 Capistrano Valley 14, Santa Monica 8--Ashley Stachowksi scored seven goals and her sister Amber had three for Capistrano Valley (16-6). No. 5 Newport Harbor 7, No. 6 Marina 6 (sudden death)--Jocelyn Manderino scored on a four-meter penalty shot with 50 seconds left in sudden death after Marina was penalized for having too many players in the pool.

Newport Harbor’s Kyndra Cox scored her second goal of the game to tie the score, 6-6, with two minutes left in regulation. Katherine Belden scored three goals and had two steals for the Sailors (16-5).

In a consolation game:

Foothill 6, No. 8 University 4--Jackie Pirro (four assists) scored three goals, Daylene Coberly had two and Teresa Gorbett one as Foothill (13-7) took a 6-1 lead into the fourth quarter.