Friday, May 6, 2011

Sixth grade/under girls earn silver medals in San Diego

by Steve Riches

Last weekend Laguna’s sixth grade and under girls water polo team travelled to San Diego to compete in the prestigious San Diego County Cup and returned home with a silver medal after competing against the best teams in the United States. Now in it’s 18th year, the San Diego County Cup is the second biggest water polo event in the country after the National Junior Olympics with 168 teams competing in 18 different pool locations.


Sixth grade and under girls water polo team: Top L-R: Erich Fischer (coach), Aria Fischer, Bella Baldridge, Samantha Loughlin, Thea Walsh, Danielle Borelli, Joie Selin, Isabel Riches, Katya Cox and Scott Baldridge (coach). Bottom L-R: Evie Cant, Angelique Begay, Niva Razin, Sophia Lucas and Audrey Duffy - Photo by James Cant




The first game Friday evening was in El Cajon where the girls cruised to a nice opening victory of 7-1 against the team from Riverside.

On Saturday morning, the team was ready for a long and exciting day of Water
Polo with Santee as the venue. Laguna’s first win came against Los Alamitos, 8-4. After lunch, the girls earned two more wins against Newport Beach, 10-2, and Saddleback El Toro (SET), 10-3.

As the sun began to set on Saturday the girls then took on Northern California’s 680 Drivers in the semifinals. This was the first time the two teams had met since Laguna’s loss to the Drivers at the Winterfest Tournament in February. After a very close game, Laguna was able score the winning goal in the last minute to earn a spot in the finals with a final score of 8-7.

Sunday morning La Jolla was the location for the gold medal match up and after a hard fought game, Laguna’s girls ended the weekend with a well-deserved silver medal, against a very strong team from Santa Barbara, losing 8-5.


“The girls did a great job in this very high profile tournament and we are looking forward to playing many of these same teams again at the National Junior Olympics in August”, said club administrator Chad Beeler.