Corona del Mar’s girls water polo team lost Maddie Musselman to the U.S. national team before the season, and it entered a pivotal showdown Thursday night in the Irvine Southern California Championships without another standout.
Corona del Mar still has plenty of pride, perhaps the top goalie in Orange County and some emerging players.
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The ingredients were more than enough to push No. 4 Corona del Mar past rival No. 8 Newport Harbor, 10-4, in a second-round match at Newport Harbor that it navigated without UCLA-bound center Bridgett Storm (ill).
Corona del Mar (15-6) will play host to third-seeded and nemesis San Marcos today at 6 p.m. in the teams’ second straight meeting in the SoCal quarterfinals. San Marcos beat San Clemente, 13–10, Thursday.
“There’s a pride in what they do and it shows,” Corona del Mar first-year coach Kevin Ricks said of his team.
“This evening, (we) kind of put it together there for the first time where it was a real complete game, and we had a lot of different people contribute and that’s huge.”
Junior Jaleh Moaddeli paced Corona del Mar with four goals, three assists and a field block against a power play. She also scored twice from center to soften the loss of Storm. Emily Ritner, Chloe Harbilas (two goals) and freshman Layne Anzaldo also played center.
Goalie Heidi Ritner anchored the defense with 11 saves. Freshman Sophie Wallace started for Storm and collected three steals, a goal and assist.
Sammie Garcia scored twice for Newport Harbor (9-14).
San Marcos (23-2) has defeated CdM twice and won last year’s quarterfinal.
“Ever since the summer, our progress has been unbelievable,” Moaddeli said.
In another second-round match:
San Marcos 13, San Clemente 10: Amber McCutcheon scored five for the Tritons.
