Girls Water Polo: San Marino Bounced From Playoffs

Getting out to a quick start was something the girls water polo team hoped for when it hosted California (Whittier) in a CIF-Southern Section Division III wild card contest Wednesday.

Unfortunately for the Titans, that didn’t happen and they fell to the visiting Condors by a score of 11-6.

“They fought really hard to the end. It’s unfortunate we came out flat in the beginning and it was just too much for us to overcome,” San Marino coach Mark Barr said. “This game was like our season. The girls grinded it out the best they could from start to finish.”

San Marino (9-16) had faced California earlier in the season, with the Condors prevailing 6-3.

California (12-8) earned the playoff berth as an at-large team from the tough Del Rio League.

“Our Del Rio League has always been strong. It seems every year we always have at least three teams in the top 10,” California coach Jeff Boline said. “We came in as an at-large team, a fourth-place team and we knocked off a second-place team. That right says the strength about our league.”

California scored the first goal of the match when Andrea Arnold converted a five-meter penalty shot at the 6:02 mark of the first period.

San Marino hung tough as the Condors couldn’t get their second goal until the final second of the first period when goalie Chelsea Wilson surprised everyone and scored from long distance.

The Titans cut the deficit in half at the 6:36 mark of the second quarter, as Heidi Tran overcame solid defending by California’s Katie Salazar to put the ball past Wilson.

But California scored the next three goals to take a 5-1 lead before San Marino’s Saskia Raether and Cindy Hsieh followed with goals to make it 5-3.

California scored twice more before halftime to go into the break up 7-3.

San Marino came out fired up in the third quarter. Kristin Charlton took a quick shot just as play resumed, stunning Wilson with a long-distance shot to pull the Titans within 7-4.

“The goal was gambling,” Barr said of his team’s strategy to get back into the match. “We tried to take advantage of it the entire game and we just couldn’t get it going. We had a few spurts, we just couldn’t get the roll started.”

Once again the Condors fought back, this time scoring three-consecutive goals to pull ahead 10-4 going into the fourth quarter.

San Marino goalie Carla Bezjian’s goal at the 5:12 mark of the fourth quarter made it 10-5.

Hsieh then scored at the 3:43 mark to cut the deficit to 10-6, but the Titans were unable to mount a comeback.