Klippert turns offensive in Newport Harbor victory

IRVINE - Kate Klippert is best known for her tough defense, but on Wednesday night, the Newport Harbor senior showed her offensive capabilities in the CIF-SS Division 1 girls water polo semifinals.

Klippert scored all of her match-high four goals in the first half to help lead the second-seeded Sailors past Back Bay rival and No. 3 Corona del Mar, 8-6, at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center.

Newport Harbor goalie Kristin Burger helped seal the victory with a pair of late saves against Corona del Mar power-play chances.

The Sailors (25-5) play No. 1 Dos Pueblos of Goleta (30-0) in the finals Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Woollett.

Klippert's goals helped push Newport Harbor to a 6-3 lead halftime lead.

"I just got really motivated," Klippert said of her outburst. "We practiced a lot of shooting."

Alex Musselman sparked Corona del Mar (21-9) in the second half, blocking a penalty shot by Kaleigh Gilchrist. Maddie Schwartz capitalized with an early power-play strike to cut Newport Harbor's lead to 6-4 with 5:26 left in the third.

But the Sailors responded with two power-play strikes of their own in third. Gilchrist assisted one by Colleen McCall and Katie Jackson added another with 1:55 left in the third to give the Sailors an 8-4 lead. Gilchrist had four assists and two goals.

Newport Harbor finished 6 of 8 with the extra attacker. Corona del Mar went 2 for 6.

"I thought we played pretty well," Newport Harbor coach Bill Barnett said.

Of Burger's two saves late, Barnett said, "Those were big."

Margot Money scored her third goal with 4:07 left in the fourth but Burger made consecutive power-play saves late.

In the other Division 1 semifinal:

Dos Pueblos of Goleta 9, Los Alamitos 8: Sami Hill blocked a lob shot with 15 seconds left and the Chargers made a final defensive stand to hold off the No. 4 Griffins (28-4).

After Hill knocked down the lob, the Griffins tossed a cross pass for Stephanie Mutafyan near the far post but couldn't make the connection in the closing seconds.

U.S. national team player Kiley Neushul scored the go-ahead goal with 1:35 left on a counterattack. The junior also scored the winner in the Chargers' 9-8 victory against Los Alamitos in the Irvine SoCal tournament.

Hill finished with 13 saves. The UCLA-bound senior also scored a length of the pool shot to beat the first-period buzzer. Los Alamitos trailed, 4-2, but came back to take a 6-5 lead with 5:13 left in the third on a goal by Kaley Dodson. With Dodson's strike, Los Alamitos became the first team this season to led Dos Pueblos in the second half.

"The girls showed a lot of resolve," Los Alamitos coach Dave Carlson said. "The girls played like champions."

Carlson also credited Hill for her goal.

"My goalie did so anything wrong," Carlson said of Savanna Smith, who had 11 blocks. "It was the perfect shot. ... Just one good player making a play on another good player."