The entire Orange County girls water polo top 10 plus San Clemente will play this week in the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions, which begins Thursday with play-in games and ends Saturday.
No. 1-ranked Laguna Beach (9-0) is the top seed, followed by Dos Pueblos of Goleta (10-1), Mater Dei (7-2) and Orange Lutheran (10-1). The Lancers are the defending TOC champion after edging Foothill, 8-7, in double sudden-death overtime last season.
Laguna Beach won the tournament in 2014 and 2015. …
Fullerton had a productive holiday break under first-year coach Shane Unger. Unger, the former Tustin coach who took the reins in early December, focused on conditioning and fundamentals for about 2 ½ weeks.
The Indians responded by upsetting Sunny Hills, 7-5, last week in the Freeway League and capturing the Lady Nobles tournament.
Fullerton had lost 14 consecutive games by average of 11.2 goals against Sunny Hills since 2010.
“It’s a great group of kids,” Unger said. “They responded well.”
Fullerton features two players from the SOCAL club: freshman Sophie Zener and junior Kaya Ortega.
The Division 5 Indians (9-3) start only two seniors but flashed their potential with an 8-7 victory against Division 3 Murrieta Mesa in the Lady Nobles final.
“Now that I’ve seen what they can do, I’m going to hold them to a higher standard,” Unger said.
– DAN ALBANO
WRESTLING
The annual Five Counties Invitational highlights this week’s wrestling schedule. The two-day event starts Friday at Fountain Valley High.
The finals begin Saturday at approximately 5:30 p.m.
Several county schools – San Clemente, Canyon, Calvary Chapel and Esperanza – will take part in the Battle for the Belt at Temecula Valley High.
The annual OCWCA All-Star Dual takes place Monday night at Marina High. The top wrestlers in the county at each weight according to the county individual rankings will face off against each other. The rankings will be released by midweek.
– DAMIAN CALHOUN
GIRLS SOCCER
There are a handful of intriguing league games on the girls soccer schedule this week, including fifth-ranked Tesoro at No. 4 Aliso Niguel on Tuesday. The Wolverines have won three straight league titles, and the Titans are returning to South Coast League play after being the Sea View League runner-up last season.
In the Trinity League on Thursday, No. 2 Santa Margarita will take on third-ranked JSerra and the county’s leading scorer, Isabella D’Aquila.
– ZACH CAVANAGH, Contributing writer
BOYS SOCCER
The Laguna Hills boys soccer team has two players, Brett Jones and Ryan Bishop, in the county top five for goals.
No other county team has more than one player in the top 10.
After scoring two goals last week in a 5-1 victory against Trabuco Hills, Jones has scored 13 goals and is tied for second with Servite’s Wilbert Valle. Jones is one goal behind them.
Godinez senior Bryan Ibarra leads the county with 14 goals.
The Hawks are one of the highest scoring teams in the county, knocking in 38 goals in 14 games for a 2.71 goals per game average.
– DAMIAN DOTTORE
GIRLS WRESTLING
Savanna’s Ariel Guzman (116 pounds) earned Lower Weight MVP honors at the San Dimas Lady Saints Classic on Saturday.
Guzman won all four of her matches by fall. She is ranked fourth in the Southern Section at 111 pounds.
Tustin’s Jackie Lopez (111 pounds) also finished first at her weight. Lopez won two matches by fall, one by technical fall and another by decision.
Aliso Niguel’s Sadie Camacho (111), Kennedy’s Maddie Camp (Kennedy, 137), Aliso Nigyuel’s Tristyn Bretana (170) and San Clemente’s Amara Devericks (189) were finalists at their weights.
– DAMIAN CALHOUN
