From staff reports
The San Diego Section girls water polo championships took place last Saturday at La Jolla High School with East County representation in both the Open Division and Division II finals.
The top-seeded Bishop’s Lady Knights defeated the third-seeded Grossmont Lady Foothillers, 18-1, to claim their four consecutive Open Division championship while the top-seeded Granite Hills Eagles finished runner-up in the Division II final by a tight 6-5 score to second-seeded Santa Fe Christian.
Bishop’s (18-6) scored the first 14 goals in the Open Division title game, holding Grossmont (24-6) scoreless until Kristin Furuholmen scored on a five-meter penalty shot. with 32 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
The Lady Foothillers, who finished 8-0 in league play, provided plenty of highlight moments in their opening two playoff games, however. Grossmont defeated sixth-seeded Helix, 11-5, in the quarterfinals on Feb. 10 and notched a 7-3 upset win over second-seeded La Costa Canyon in the semifinals on Feb. 15.
Three East County teams received Open Division seeds, in fact. Besides Grossmont and Helix, Valhalla was seeded eighth in the elite eight-team field. However, the Lady Norsemen drew No. 1 Bishop’s in the quarterfinals, dropping a 23-2 decision to the powerful Lady Knights to bow out of championship contention.
Granite Hills, 8-0 in league play, finished with a commanding 28-2 record after placing runner-up in last weekend’s CIF finals.
The Lady Eagles slipped past eighth-seeded Vista, 8-7, in the quarterfinals on Feb. 12, then swam past fifth-seeded Mission Bay, 10-3, in the semifinals on Feb. 17.
Granite Hills made a furious comeback from a 5-2 deficit to tie the championship game, 5-5, on a pair of goals by Chloe Morgan and another goal by Korinne McCarthy. However, Santa Fe Christian junior Revere Schmidt scored what proved to be the game-winning goal with 2:10 to play in regulation.
The Division II playoff field was loaded with four Grossmont Conference teams. Seventh-seeded Steele Canyon sank 10th-seeded Classical Academy, 13-9 in first-round action on Feb. 9 while Vista defeated ninth-seeded West Hills, 8-4, and Mission Bay topped 12th-seeded El Capitan 10-4, in other first-round contests.
Steele Canyon lost, 10-5, to Santa Fe Christian in the quarterfinals.
Last Saturday’s CIF finals featured four divisional finals. Second-seeded Coronado (13-9) posted an 11-3 win over top-seeded Clairemont (21-8-1) in the Division I title game while top-seeded Bonita Vista (22-7) overpowered second-seeded Francis Parker (15-6) by a 9-0 shutout score to win the Division III title.
Grossmont received the No. 7 seed in this week’s Southern California Division I regional playoff bracket, meeting second-seeded Laguna Beach in Tuesday’s quarterfinals.
Bishop’s received the No. 4 seed in the same field, meeting No. 5 Foothill in the quarterfinals.
Santa Fe Christian received the No. 4 seed in the Division III regionals while Bonita Vista received the No. 7 seed.
Regional championship games are scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 26.
