Girls water polo: Sailors turned away, 9-3

Steve Virgen

NEWPORT BEACH - Playing against the Foothill High girls water polo

team is like walking a tightrope: One false move and you’re done. Coach

Bill Barnett’s Newport Harbor squad fell from the wire early, taking just

two shots in the first quarter, while giving up three goals to the

visiting Knights, who soundly defeated the Sailors, 9-3, in a nonleague

game Friday.

Foothill (17-0), the two-time defending CIF Southern Section Division

I champion, displayed its trademark suffocating defense and added a a

relentless attack to provide a different story from the 5-4 victory it

scored against Newport in the semifinals of the Santa Barbara Tournament

Jan. 12.

The only thing similar to that matchup was the Knights opened again

with a 3-0 first-quarter lead. And they remained undefeated by scoring

two goals in each of the remaining three quarters.

With its balanced attack are the Knights capable of being beaten?

“Not by us,” Barnett said. “Their passing was superb and their effort

was great. We obviously didn’t even come close to matching them. They’re

an awfully good team. Their ball handling was incredible out there. I

told the girls at the end of the first quarter that the difference was we

were not pressing. We were allowing them to get the ball into the strike

zone very easily and then we were not working the ball into the strike

zone at the other end.”

Foothill’s defense never allowed Newport to find its rhythm in a big

game that brought out such onlookers as Newport water polo’s founding

father Ted Newland.

Junior Jenna Murphy made good on an outside shot from about 10 meters

out to bring the Sailors (14-5) to within 5-1 but with two seconds left

in the first half, the goal hardly gave Newport any momentum.

The Knights rang up a 7-1 lead with 3:13 left in the third period,

after scoring two goals in a 39-second span.

The Sailors, the last team to win the CIF Division I title before

Foothill, answered 22 seconds later. Murphy drew a player-advantage

situation and then assisted on senior Katherine Belden’s skip-shot goal.

Junior Annie Wight scored 20 seconds into the final quarter on a

backhand shot after a pass from junior Paige Lansing, drawing the Sailors

to a 7-3 deficit. But the Knights threw in two more goals in a 48-second

span to put the game on ice.

Though the Sailors failed to find their offensive game, their defense

made some impressive stops. Murphy recorded five steals, while Belden

posted two steals and senior goalie Leah Grocki finished with five saves.

“If you look on paper they are the scariest team because they play

well together as a team,” Foothill Coach Dave Mikesell said. “You have

the big names like Jessica Ball, Katherine Belden, Jenna Murphy, Annie

Wight, this is the team that has always been there. It’s one of those

teams that has been on the fringes. Those are the kinds of teams you have

to be concerned with because on any given day they might pull what they

did out there in Santa Barbara.”

NONLEAGUE

Foothill 9, Newport Harbor 3

Foothill 3 2 2 2 - 9

Newport Harbor 0 1 1 1 - 3

Foothill - Domanic 3, Hayes 3, Kraus 2, Card 1. Saves - Feher 3,

Redaeli 1.

Newport Harbor - Murphy 1, Belden 1, Wight 1. Saves - Grocki 5.