Rust shows in victory

It had been nearly three weeks since the Laguna Beach girls’ water polo team had faced any competition, so any signs of rust shown by the Breakers would be understandable when they took on Santa Margarita Tuesday in nonleague play.

They did manage to shake off their layoff in time, however, to score a 9-8 victory over the Eagles at the Laguna pool.

The Breakers, ranked second in Division II, have now won nine straight to improve to 9-1. Their lone loss was a double-overtime setback to top-ranked Foothill (Div. I) in their season opener Dec. 4.

Before Tuesday’s win against Santa Margarita — a Division I program — the last time the Breakers saw any action was Dec. 20 when they scored a key victory over last year’s Div. II champion Agoura, 15-10.

They currently are in Santa Barbara for several important matches, and Co-Coach Chad Beeler said he was happy his team got to see some playing action against Santa Margarita before a grueling three days of action that had the Breakers taking on Dos Pueblos Thursday before beginning play at the Tournament of Champions hosted by Santa Barbara High.

“I’m really glad that we got the chance to play Santa Margarita because we hadn’t played in a long, long time,” Beeler said.

“We skimmed by for the win. Had we not been off on such a long break over the holidays, I’d expect us to win a bit more comfortably.

“Not playing a game in three weeks makes it tough, and I could see that the girls were a bit rusty. Now, we have to get ready for some really tough games up in Santa Barbara. But it’s great to get back to playing.”

Laguna took a 5-4 halftime lead on Santa Margarita and went up 8-6 through three quarters. The Breakers secured the win when Annika Dries scored on a five-meter shot late in the fourth quarter.

Taylor Dodson scored two goals and had three assists to pace the Laguna offense. Jessie Holechek, Natasha Schulman and Maddi Duncan each scored once with an assist.

Jessica Shusko and Lexy Ross both scored once, Dries had a pair of steals, Etianne Manetta had three saves in goal, and starting goalie Sarah Zuziak, whom Beeler said “did really well in goal,” finished with eight saves.

The Breakers departed Thursday for Santa Barbara and first had a 6 p.m. nonleague contest that day against Dos Pueblos (the score wasn’t available at press time).

The Chargers were impressive during the holiday break, beating two of the top-rated teams in Division I, Foothill and host Newport Harbor, en route to winning the Holiday Cup tournament title.

Those two wins vaulted Dos Pueblos to No. 1 in the Division II poll, Beeler said.

The Chargers began the season ranked fourth in the preseason poll while Laguna began at No. 2.

Today at 1 p.m., the Breakers begin play at the loaded Tournament of Champions and will take on host Santa Barbara which was ranked No. 5 in Div. II before the holiday break.

The 16 teams, split equally into four pools, in the tournament are:

Pool A: Dos Pueblos, Los Alamitos, Whittier, Santa Margarita

Pool B: Newport Harbor, Coronado, Villa Park, El Toro

Pool C: Foothill, Long Beach Wilson, Agoura, Ayala

Pool D: Laguna Beach, Corona del Mar, Montebello, Santa Barbara.

At the start of the season in early December, Foothill, Montebello, Newport Harbor, Corona del Mar, Los Alamitos, El Toro and Santa Margarita all were ranked in the Div. I top 10 poll. Villa Park, Laguna Beach, Dos Pueblos, Santa Barbara and Agoura all were ranked in the top six of the Div. II top 10 poll, and Whittier and Ayala were the No. 1 and No. 2 teams, respectively, in the Div. III poll.

Coronado is one of the CIF-San Diego Section’s top-rated teams.

“It’s one of the premiere tournaments, for sure,” Beeler said. “In order to contend for the title, the girls will need to attack a little more and be level-headed throughout the whole thing. They’ll also need to communicate with each other out there.

“There’s really no easy match in this thing. Each team will need to be at its best in order to win the tournament.”