Szabo: Eagles rounding into form

The Estancia High girls’ soccer team was a bit inconsistent in December, battling through injuries and learning the system of first-year Coach Josh Juarez.

But the Eagles are seeming to round into form just in time for Orange Coast League play.

Estancia beat Saddleback 3-0 on Thursday night at Jim Scott Stadium in its league opener, a game Juarez called his team’s best of the season so far. Lexina McDowell, Delani Guyot and Daniela Serpa all scored goals.

“When a new coach comes in, definitely it takes some time to create the comfort zone between coach and player, and the new system, new way of doing things,” Juarez said. “After a couple of months together now, it’s starting to come together. The girls are really responding more and understanding what I’m asking of them on the field.

“A lot of the things that we’ve been talking about and working on started to come together in that game. We started to move the ball much quicker and share with everyone.”

Juarez said the Eagles also have started to get healthy. The winter break was good for senior captains Emily Rodriguez and Brandi White, who Juarez said were pretty banged up before but are now ready to go.

Rodriguez leads Estancia with four goals and three assists, and the presence of White in the back will bolster the Eagles (7-4-2, 1-0 in league). Sophomore Annie Mitchell will be the Eagles’ goalie for league play. Mitchell is also playing water polo for Estancia this winter, but the schedules are now offset enough to allow her to do both.

Getting Mitchell at goalie means Estancia can move sophomore Annalysa Cowie, who was playing goalie, to her more natural center back position.

Estancia has a big week ahead. On Tuesday it plays Calvary Chapel at 3:15 p.m. at Centennial Park in Santa Ana. The two teams share the Eagles name, and they also shared the Orange Coast League title last season.

Then on Thursday, the Eagles play crosstown rival Costa Mesa at 5 p.m. at Jim Scott Stadium.

“They’re definitely excited,” Juarez said of his players. “I know they’ll be really up for Costa Mesa because that’s a rival, but we can’t even look to that game yet. The girls know that Calvary is going to be a strong squad. That’s really going to tell us where we’re at right now as a team.”

The last of the three team captains, junior midfielder Katarina Freiberger, said that she and her teammates are indeed excited for league play. She added that Estancia graduate Alba Barrios, the 2014-15 Newport-Mesa Player of the Year who now plays at Cal State Fullerton, is helping out as an assistant coach.

“I feel like [Juarez] really cares about us and our team and our progress,” Freiberger said. “We’re bonding together really well. I think we have a lot of energy this year.”

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•The Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor girls’ water polo teams head to the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions next weekend, and the stay will be one day longer for the Sailors this year.

Considered perhaps the toughest tournament of the regular season, the TOC keeps getting bigger. This is the second year that there will be “play-in” games on Thursday for several teams. Newport Harbor plays Rosary in one of these games, on Thursday at 3 p.m. at Dos Pueblos High.

The Sailors need to win this game to get into the main draw of 16 teams, where they would play Dos Pueblos on Friday at 2:30 p.m. in a first-round game also at Dos Pueblos High. Newport Harbor is ranked No. 9 in CIF Southern Section Division 1 and Dos Pueblos is No. 6, although it has been a month since the CIF polls have been updated. Should Newport Harbor lose Thursday, it would play a round-robin schedule on Friday and Saturday at San Marcos High against the other play-in game losers.

It’s a busy week for Newport Harbor. Before the Sailors worry about traveling north, they have a key Sunset League showdown against Huntington Beach at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Newport Harbor High.

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•Corona del Mar also has a difficult first-round draw at the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions, against the Mater Dei-Vista Murrieta play-in winner at 1:30 p.m. on Friday at Dos Pueblos High. The Sea Kings are ranked No. 5 in Division 1, and the Monarchs are No. 8.

The tournament continues with quarterfinal games Friday night at Dos Pueblos and Santa Barbara. The top eight teams will play Saturday at Santa Barbara High, unless the host Dons aren’t in the top eight. In that case, the top teams will play at Dos Pueblos.

Top-seeded Laguna Beach is two-time defending Santa Barbara TOC champion. San Marcos, Foothill and Orange Lutheran round out the top four seeds.

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•Kudos to the Newport Harbor girls’ basketball team, which defeated Fountain Valley, 44-39, in a Sunset League opener Thursday night. Senior guard McKenna Izzi had 11 points, and junior Angelina Alvarez scored 10. Junior center Lisa Hamilton continued her strong play this season with nine points and 23 rebounds.

The win against the Barons was just the second league win in four years for Newport Harbor, which snapped a 37-game league losing streak last year by winning at Marina.

It should be noted that Fountain Valley has an 0-16 record this season. But, it also should be noted that the Sailors (4-10, 1-0 in league), coached by program alumna Jillian Blackledge, have impressed me with their constant effort in the two games I’ve seen them play this year. They never gave up on Tuesday in the Battle of the Bay game, even after falling behind CdM, 17-0, early in the second quarter.

Newport Harbor continues Sunset League play Tuesday at Huntington Beach.