Girls’ Water Polo: Los Al on top
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The defense of a Sunset League title started with defense on Wednesday night for the Los Alamitos High girls’ water polo team.
And on offense, the Griffins got some big counterattack goals that host Newport Harbor was unable to counter.
In the league finale for the title, junior Madison Ravelo had five goals as Los Alamitos pulled away for an 8-4 victory to earn its second straight Sunset League crown, and third in the last four years.
Los Al Coach Dave Carlson said it’s the first time since 2005 and ’06 that his team has won back-to-back league titles. The following season was the one when Newport Harbor joined the league.
The rivals have had some good games over the years, always finishing top two in league. But on Wednesday night, it was the Griffins, ranked No. 7 in CIF Southern Section Division 1, who had the edge over Newport Harbor, which is tied for 10th in Division 1.
“It really started with getting stops,” Carlson said. “Every transition or counterattack that we got where we had an advantage, it was a big stop that led to it. And trust me, getting stops against this Newport team is not easy ... all of the girls on Newport can shoot. I mean, they’ve definitely got their best shooter, Jessica Lynch, but all of these girls can score from the outside. I thought we played really, really well on defense.”
The Sailors started slow, with Los Al taking a 3-0 lead in the first quarter on two goals by Ravelo and one by Katie Dvonch. Newport Harbor (13-11, 4-1 in league) didn’t score until two seconds were remaining in the quarter, when junior co-captain Kaela Whelan struck from five meters on the power play.
Newport Harbor would rally to tie the score at 3-3 by halftime. Sophomore Karis Couch drew a penalty shot that junior Sarah Barker converted, then Lynch struck from about eight meters.
Lynch scored again midway through the third quarter to tie the score at 4-4, but it would be the only goal the Sailors would score in the second half. Meanwhile, Ravelo and Jessica Lee added counterattack goals to give the Griffins a 6-4 lead entering the final quarter.
“In the league championship, you’ve got to play four good quarters, and we probably had about two-and-a-half good ones out there,” Newport Harbor Coach Brian Melstrom said. “Hopefully this is a learning experience ... we’ve got a lot of sophomores out there trying to create, and they got a huge amount of experience this year. I’m happy. I’m not happy with the loss, but I’m happy knowing that we did everything we could. We just couldn’t get that crucial goal in the second half.
“They really tightened things up. They got the lead, they pressed a lot harder and they double-teamed. They really made it difficult for our girls to get in position to shoot.”
Ravelo scored twice more in the fourth quarter to close it out, including the game’s final goal. Her shot from about nine meters went off a field block and in with 3:30 remaining in the game.
But it was the defense that did the difference for Los Alamitos (20-8, 5-0), Carlson said. The Griffins were coming off a strong tournament last weekend at the Irvine Southern California Championships, where they placed seventh.
“Our best three games of the season were Laguna [in the Irvine tournament quarterfinals], Orange Lutheran [in the fifth-place semifinals] and Foothill [in the seventh-place game],” Carlson said. “The tournament was a great momentum-builder going into this game, especially on defense. Playing defense against Laguna, then the next day only giving up six goals to OLu, then the last game only giving up four goals to Foothill. The girls were extremely confident that if they play their game, our defense is really, really good.”
Lynch led the Sailors with the two goals, while Whelan and Barker both had two steals. Senior keeper Chloe Schilling made five saves, and sophomore Kili Skibby had a field block. Senior co-captain Lissa Westerman and sophomore Annie Rankin both had one steal.
Lee had the goal and four assists for the Griffins, who also got two steals, two assists and two field blocks from Bayley Weber and eight saves from sophomore keeper Tara Debrabander.
Newport Harbor will now prepare for the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs. Brackets will be released Saturday morning. Melstrom said the Sailors could drop to the No. 11 or 12 position in the 16-team bracket, which could mean a first-round game at either current No. 5 Orange Lutheran or No. 6 Corona del Mar.
A second Battle of the Bay game this year would definitely be interesting. Whelan said the Sailors will be ready for the postseason.
“We all put in every ounce of hard work we had [tonight], it just didn’t come out our way,” Whelan said. “And that’s OK. We’re going to take that and build it for our first CIF game, because that’s what we’re working for.
“We’re a team that can take a loss and get in the pool the next morning or afternoon, go from there and start working. We’re always positive, optimistic, looking forward to our next game. We want to win, obviously, but in the end we want to just show that we gave it our all and we’re a hard-working team.”
Twitter: @mjszabo
