IRVINE – Laguna Beach’s girls water polo team finally cooled off late Saturday afternoon at the Irvine Southern California Championships.
It took arguably the hottest team in the nation to provide the douse.
Olympic contender Kiley Neushul scored five goals as top-seeded Dos Pueblos of Goleta extended its winning streak to a staggering 61 consecutive matches with a 13-6 victory in the finals at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center.
Laguna Beach (18-7), ranked seventh in Division 1, led 3-1 late in the first but the Chargers (25-0) scored the next 10 goals.
The Stanford-bound senior highlighted the stretch by making a quick, half-spin in front of the net to redirect a pass by Tiera Schroeder for a goal. In the fourth, she made a spectacular, shot fake before feeding Schroeder for an easy goal that made it 12-4 with 5:04 left.
Neushul was selected the event’s top field player for the third consecutive year.
“We had no answer for her,” Laguna Beach coach Ethan Damato said. “We came out inspired in the first quarter … and we kind of ran out of gas.”
In the semifinals, the Breakers defeated third-seeded Santa Barbara, 11-6, behind four goals by Melena Masson and three from Riley Duncan, who matched her season high. Goalie Eitanne Manetta added eight saves, including one against a penalty.
The Breakers’ victory came on the heels of their upset of second-seeded and county No. 1 Los Alamitos.
“Now that we’ve played this tournament and we’ve seen what we’re capable of doing, we can definitely go into CIF with higher expectations,” Masson said.
Contact the writer: dalbano@ocregister.com
