Sports
Girls Water Polo: San Marino Remains in Playoff Hunt
Titans keep postseason hopes alive with 8-3 win
The girls water polo team was not happy with the way it started it season, and the Titans made a New Year’s Resolution to do something about it.
Thursday afternoon the Titans topped visiting Monrovia 8-3 in a Rio Hondo League contest, keeping their playoff hopes alive.
“We started the year 0-6 and started getting some wins. After the second half of league started to play we saw making CIF was a tangible goal and so we put that up. It is kind of motivating they come in every day and know their goal,” San Marino coach Mark Barr said of posting team goals on a dry erase board alongside the Titans’ pool deck.
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San Marino (7-12, 3-3 in the RHL) overcame a 6-4 loss to Monrovia earlier in the season.
“They played much better this game than the last one,” Barr said. “Monrovia’s pool is a tough place to play at and we played no defense in the fourth quarter of that game. Coming into this one we did what we wanted. We shut them out in the second half.
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We’re pretty evenly matched, but my girls made a point to play good defense in this game.”
San Marino now needs a win over either La Cañada or Temple City to finish in the top three in league and earn a berth in the CIF-Southern Section playoffs.
Both sides played solid defense and many of the goals scored came from long distance.
“The defense did play a lot better so they did not get those easy shots,” Monrovia coach Armando Ruiz said. “Both defenses played well on the fast breaks.”
San Marino got on the board first as Jessica Chang scored from far out by putting the ball in the lower left corner past goalie Mary Kenz at the 4:48 mark of the first period.
Monrovia (6-11, 1-5) countered with a goal by Sammy Maggio at the 3:09 mark on the first period.
San Marino’s Kristin Charlton gave her team the lead with 49 seconds left in the first quarter with another long-distance goal in the lower left corner.
Charlton, who had a match-high four goals, scored the first goal of the second period.
Monrovia fought back as Valeria Nava and Mariana Camacho each scored to tie things at three.
Chang scored her second goal with 37 seconds left in the first half to give the Titans a 4-3 halftime lead.
The second half was all Titans as Charlton added two more goals and Cindy Hsieh and Saskia Raether each added goals.
San Marino goalie Carla Bezjian finished with nine saves. Kenz had eight saves for Monrovia.
