Sailors torpedo El Toro

Bryce Alderton

A patient offensive attack yielded plenty of goals to go around

for the Newport Harbor High girls water polo team against nonleague

foe El Toro Friday at Newport Harbor High.

Seven Sailors tallied goals for Newport (7-2) which bested the

Chargers (6-2), 13-7, six days following a dramatic 8-7 defeat at the

hands of undefeated Foothill.

Senior driver Jenna Murphy led the Sailor attack with three goals,

two assists and two steals while four Newport players scored two

goals. Anne Belden, Annie Wight, Carolyn Conway and Jessica Ball each

found the back of the cage twice with Katie Erickson and Paige

Lansing registering single goals for the victors.

Even with a six-goal win, Newport Coach Bill Barnett said there’s

a lot of room for improvement for his squad.

“Mediocre at best,” said Barnett about Newport’s play Friday. “Our

passing went poor. At times we’d get the ball and within 10 seconds

we threw it away.”

El Toro got its second goal by taking advantage of a slow Newport

transition defense following a blown whistle that the Sailors

appeared to think indicated it was actually the Chargers’ possession.

Wight also acknowledged the Sailors were rusty with their passes

and couldn’t explain why the team seemed sluggish at times.

“We tried to play smart by not having any easy turnovers and no

bad passes but that didn’t work too well today,” Wight said. “I think

we can definitely improve and get back on the right track.”

Barnett said the team played better in its loss to Foothill last

weekend in the finals of the Newport Harbor-Corona del Mar Holiday

Cup, but was impressed with Newport’s counterattacks.

Three of Newport’s five second-period goals came following a steal

in the defensive end. Ball, Murphy and Erickson each collected

assists on breaks in the second quarter as Newport built a 9-4

halftime lead.

The closest El Toro got was a 2-2 tie following a goal by senior

Katie Hedley, who led the Chargers with four goals on eight shots and

also notched two assists. Ball scored her first goal on a six-on-five

advantage swimming on the left side of the goal to give the Sailors

the lead for good at 3-2 with 1:20 to go in the first period.

Murphy reached up with her left hand to deflect a Charger

centering pass and made an outlet throw to Belden, who scored from

three meters with six seconds remaining in the first period to give

the Sailors a 4-2 lead.

Newport showed its aggressiveness throughout the game. Wight drew

six of the Chargers’ eight ejections and the Sailors capitalized on

two of those man-advantage situations.

Conway showed her determination by fighting off a defender draped

around her at two meters and whipping around to score her first goal

that made it, 7-3 Newport, with 5:02 to go in the second quarter.

Erickson assisted on the goal.

El Toro got as close as 11-7 when Hedley tallied her final two

goals in the remaining 21 seconds of the third period. Her third goal

came following a steal by Pierson and the fourth score came when she

heaved the ball from the far end of the pool as the buzzer sounded.

“We just couldn’t establish any consistency,” Barnett said. “We

would do one thing right and two things wrong.”

Former Newport water polo players Katherine Belden and Erin Ball

watched their sisters, Anne and Jessica, respectively, play in

Friday’s game.

Belden, a four-time All-CIF selection and the Sailors’ Girls

Athlete of the Year following last season, will begin practicing with

UCLA Monday for the upcoming women’s water polo season.

Ball attends the University of Michigan and will enter her

sophomore season with the Wolverines. She was a four-year starter as

was Belden and garnered All-CIF third-team honors in her senior

season in 2001 while earning All-Sea View League accolades as well.

Both Ball and Belden were members of Newport’s 1999 CIF Division I

championship team.

“It’s fun to watch them, they did good,” Belden said.

Nonleague

Newport 13, El Toro 7

Score by Quarters

El Toro 2 2 3

0 -- 7

Newport 4 5 2

2 -- 13

El Toro -- Hedley 4, Pierson 2, Palacios 1. Saves --

Scott, 7.

Newport -- Murphy 3, Ball 2, Belden 2, Conway 2, Wight 2, Erickson

1, Lansing 1. Saves -- Cottam -- 2.