Breakers open polo playoffs

Mike Sciacca

The Laguna Beach High girls’ water polo team takes its first step

toward a possible CIF-Southern Section water polo championship today

when the Breakers host Sonora in a Division II first-round matchup.

Match time is 3:15 p.m. at the school pool.

Laguna brings into the match a No. 2 playoff seed.

Sonora, the No. 15 seed, is the runner-up from the Freeway League.

Corona del Mar is the No. 1 seed, Villa Park is third and Sunny

Hills, champion of the Freeway League, is the No. 4 seed.

Despite being at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to

bracket seedings, Breakers coach Rick McKee said his team will be

ready for the Raiders.

“We have not played Sonora this season, and we won’t take them

lightly as this is playoff time and every team knows that if you

lose, you go home,” he said.

The first-round match will be Laguna’s first game in the water

since the Breakers dropped an emotional 7-3 score on Feb. 9 to rival

Corona del Mar, in a match that decided the Pacific Coast League

champion.

“We have some good time to talk about the loss to CdM,” McKee

said. “Everyone believes that we were to afraid to lose. Being the

case was, we were much to tentative in our play.

“The girls are fired up and looking forward to a potential rematch

with them in the finals.”

Laguna reached the semifinal round last year, where it was

eliminated by Peninsula by a 4-2 score.

Heading into today’s playoff match, senior center Addison Doud

lead the Breakers in scoring with 112 goals. Sophomore utility

Jessica McKee is next in scoring with 50, followed by freshman driver

Erin Reed (44), sophomore two-meter defender Breanna Duplisea (29)

and senior driver Kat Gordon (14).

Jessica McKee leads the team in assists with 53, followed by

Duplisea with 47 and Reid with 45.

Doud has 38 assists and Gordon has 34.

Duplisea also has been quite a force on defense and leads the

squad in steals with 83.

“Together, they are playing very well as a team,” Rick McKee said.

“As we are preparing for the playoffs, we must have more of a balance

between our perimeter game with the interior part. Addison is very

strong on the interior, but as we saw with CdM, we must establish the

outside threat in order to open the inside up more.

“Our team defense is excellent, and I firmly believe that champ-

ionships are won on defense.”

A victory today moves Laguna into Tuesday’s quarterfinal round,

where they would play the winner of today’s first-round match between

Empire League champion Katella and Bay League runner-up Mira Costa.

The semifinal round will be played Feb. 25, and the championship

final is set at 8:15 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 28, at Belmont Plaza Pool

in Long Beach.