Newport Harbor girls’ water polo tops rival CdM as playoffs loom

Players from the Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor girls’ water polo teams took to social media for some good-natured ribbing prior to Tuesday night’s Battle of the Bay match.

First, CdM senior Macey Grimmond made an Instagram reel where she interviewed some of her teammates about just what exactly they were going to do to the Sailors. In response, Newport Harbor senior Gigi Rimlinger and junior Shay Nussbalm did the same.

“There was a lot of tension between the two schools on social media and stuff,” Newport Harbor senior Sutton Harrington said. “Everyone was really excited.”

The Sunset League title was up for grabs in the teams’ first meeting of the season. CdM made it a competitive match, but in the end Newport Harbor was just a bit too relentless.

The Sailors pulled away at CdM, earning a 13-6 victory and the outright league title in the last regular season match for both programs.

Sophomore Valery Verdugo scored a match-high four goals for Newport Harbor (21-5, 6-0 in league). Fellow sophomore Gabby Alexson also had a strong match with three goals, along with three exclusions drawn and one penalty shot.

Newport Harbor center Gabby Alexson (14), shown competing earlier this season, had a strong match Tuesday with three goals, plus three exclusions and one penalty shot drawn.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Senior center Reagan Weir netted a team-best four goals for CdM (19-7, 5-1).

The deep Sailors, who have been making six-for-six substitutions this year, left the first line in a bit longer than usual on Tuesday. Seniors Caitlin Stayt, Harper Price and Rimlinger all scored in an early blitz that gave Newport Harbor a 3-0 advantage.

“We’re a very momentum-focused team,” said Sailors senior goalkeeper Lydia Soderberg, who made eight saves and added three steals. “If we’re starting with all of these goals, we don’t want to get comfortable. We want to keep going and pushing, but starting with three goals, it just jump-started our drive and was great for our offense.”

CdM coach Marc Hunt got a goal from freshman Keira Bethell out of the ensuing timeout on a nice dish from senior Didi Evans, then Weir scored on the power play as the Sea Kings pulled back within a goal.

The hosts kept battling. Weir added another six-on-five goal, a redirect assisted by Piper Sidebotham, to pull CdM back within a goal at 5-4 early in the third quarter.

But Newport Harbor responded with three straight goals — by Verdugo, Alexson and Emerson Mulvey — to take an 8-4 lead.

“I think all of us competed so well against them,” Weir said. “We’ve struggled with that in the season, momentum shifts. We’ll have a really good thing happen or a really good opportunity, and something doesn’t go our way, and it just falls from there. But I think we did a good job of picking ourselves back up. We did our best that we could have. I think everyone just got tired, honestly.”

Corona del Mar’s Reagan Weir (11), shown competing earlier this season, led her team with four goals on Tuesday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Price scored twice for the Sailors, with sophomore Madison Mack adding a goal. Freshman Addison Ting dished out three assists.

Evans added the other goal for the Sea Kings, who got five saves from senior goalkeeper Gabby MacAfee.

Both teams will now prepare for the CIF Southern Section playoffs, with brackets being released Friday. Newport Harbor, which placed top three in each of its major in-season tournaments, could be joined by CdM in the eight-team Open Division.

The Open Division has moved to a pool-play format for the first time in girls’ water polo, with initial games on Feb. 5. The winner of each four-team pool earns a spot in the semifinals, scheduled for Feb. 19, while second and third place in each pool crossover to compete for a semifinal appearance.

Both teams will get about a week to prepare for their postseason push. Last year, Newport Harbor made the Open Division semifinals before losing a tough match against eventual champion Orange Lutheran, while Corona del Mar won the Division 1 title.

“The month of January, it’s a lot,” Sailors coach Ross Sinclair said. “We get some time to kind of focus on ourselves, not other teams. It’ll be good. We’re going to do everything we can to put ourselves in a position to have success.”