Newport Harbor emerges as major Division I contender

SANTA BARBARA - Newport Harbor's girls water polo team didn't capture the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions on Saturday, but the Sailors showed they are serious Division I contenders.

Orange County's top-ranked squad played in the finals without leading scorer Kaleigh Gilchrist and gave reigning CIF-SS Division I champ Dos Pueblos of Goleta all it could handle at Santa Barbara High.

Defending champion Dos Pueblos emerged with a 6-5 victory after a cross-cage lob shot by attacker Katie Jackson just missed with about 30 seconds left. Jackson popped free on a back-door drive but her shot landed short.

Top-seeded Dos Pueblos (17-0) never trailed but Newport Harbor (13-2) had several good chances to the tie in the final three minutes. Two came on power plays but the Sailors failed to convert and finished 1 for 6 with the extra attacker.

But after the final buzzer, Newport Harbor coaches Bill Barnett and Brian Melstrom each clapped their hands. The Sailors gave Dos Pueblos its toughest match of the season and did so without Gilchrist, who left after the semifinals for a trip to New Zealand with the U.S. junior national surf team.

"I was very pleased with the effort," Barnett said. "I think this will give us a lot of confidence."

Jackson said Barnett gave the team confidence before the match. Jackson said the ex-U.S. Olympic coach approached the final as if it were any other match against Dos Pueblos.

"We were expecting him to be, 'OK, play for pride. Do what you can do,'" said Jackson, who scored on a first-period lob. "But he coached us like he coached any other game with Kaleigh. ... We were just like, 'Well, if he has faith in us, how can we not have faith in ourselves to give it our all?'"

Newport Harbor kept the faith even when it didn't look good in the second period. U.S. national teamer Kiley Neushul scored a spectacular goal from center with 3:11 left in the period to put Dos Pueblos up, 5-2. Neushul was turning in an attempt to seal her defender at 2 meters but in the middle of the move, the entry pass skipped past her. The junior collected the ball with her left hand and flipped it high to her right hand for the shot.

But Newport Harbor scored twice in the third. Kate Klippert drove and scored off a pass from sophomore Madison McLaren. Kailyn Obenauer then added a goal to make it 5-4.

Neushul, the tournament MVP, scored the winning goal early in the fourth. She fired in a shot after being fouled outside 5 meters to make it 6-4. But attacker Colleen McCall came back by spinning in a lob from the top perimeter with 5:12 left.

“The fact that we actually held it so close the whole game and we only lost by one was just astonishing for all us,” Jackson said. “Hopefully the next game, we will be beating them by one or two.”

Goalie Kristin Burger helped anchor Newport Harbor's defense with 13 saves.

In the semifinals, Gilchrist scored buzzer-beaters at the end of the second and third periods to lead Newport Harbor past No.2 Los Alamitos, 6-3.