CdM remains on fire

CORONA DEL MAR — To get into the final four, it was imperative that the Corona del Mar High girls’ water polo team stop No. 3.

That player for Villa Park is Stanford-bound senior Cassie Churnside, a force at two meters.

She causes mismatches, but the Sea Kings as a team were just too strong in their 7-3 victory Friday night in a quarterfinal of the Irvine Southern California Championships at CdM.

The top-seeded Sea Kings (19-5) move on to play Long Beach Wilson in a semifinal today at 11 a.m. at Irvine High. The Bruins upset Foothill, 10-9. The title game is at 3 p.m.

But Friday night, the Sea Kings’ thoughts were on the left-handed Churnside, who runs an effective inside-outside combination with fellow Spartans senior Christina Miyabe.

“It’s hard to guard them,” CdM Coach Aaron Chaney said. “They isolate [Churnside] on the post, and they put [Miyabe], who’s a great shooter, up on top. What do you do? Do you drop off of [Miyabe] so she can shoot it, or do you press her? Then [Churnside] is open. It’s really tough. We adjusted to bring somebody over and help out.”

CdM’s best defense may have been a potent early offense. The Sea Kings, who are the top-ranked team in CIF Southern Section Division I and have now won 14 games in a row, opened up a 3-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game.

Junior Victoria Kennedy scored from set, then senior Allison Peotter scored from seven meters out. Junior Heather Van Hiel added a goal from five meters, giving CdM a 3-0 lead with 2 minutes, 47 seconds left in the first quarter.

But Villa Park (16-7), the No. 2 ranked team in Division II, kept battling. The Spartans scored twice to end the quarter, a goal from Churnside and one from senior Alexis Mitchell, and much of the second quarter went by with CdM holding the tenuous 3-2 advantage.

Churnside drew five CdM exclusions in the first half alone.

“At the beginning, we weren’t going to drop off [Miyabe], but as the game went on we decided to drop,” Van Hiel said. “It’s better that way. We’d rather have the outside shot, because we know [Kate Baldoni] can block it.”

Baldoni, who finished with 14 saves, got a big block with CdM a player down midway through the second quarter. She fed it ahead to Van Hiel, who scored a one-on-nobody to push the lead to 4-2.

“That’s huge,” Chaney said. “There’s two demoralizing things in water polo. One is countering off somebody else’s six-on-five, and the most demoralizing is countering off a missed penalty shot. It’s pretty demoralizing when you have a six-on-five, and you miss it and somebody counters and scores on you. I told my girls that should never happen. It’s happened to us, too, but hopefully it doesn’t.”

Kennedy added a goal from set with 59 seconds left in the half, and the Sea Kings were never seriously challenged the rest of the way. Van Hiel finished with three goals, two assists and two steals, and Peotter added a pair of goals and two more steals.

CdM also held Churnside and fellow Villa Park senior Ally Waasted, who came into the game with 166 goals between them, to just one combined goal.

“Lately, we’ve just had a really great team effort from everywhere,” Van Hiel said. “Really good defense, two-meter shots, we’ve got great counters, we’ve got ‘KB’ in the goal. It’s been a team effort.”

And the Sea Kings, just like they did when they won the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions, have set a new team goal each day of the tournament. The goal after beating Villa Park?

“Our new goal is...” Van Hiel started to say, then paused to raise her index finger.

“One,” she said. “We’re playing for first. You don’t play for second. I think everyone will come out and be fired up to beat Long Beach Wilson.”

The Sea Kings lost to Wilson, 7-6, in their second game of the season, but beat them, 8-3, in the quarterfinals of the Holiday Cup.

Irvine Southern California

Championships

Quarterfinal

Corona del Mar 7, Villa Park 3

SCORE BY QUARTERS

VP – Churnside 1, Mitchell 1, Miyabe 1. Saves – Morton 9.

CdM – Van Hiel 3, Kennedy 2, Peotter 2. Saves – Baldoni 14.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at [email protected].