Santa Barbara proves too much for Agoura




THEY'LL BE BACK-Above, Agoura sophomore goalie Sara Gratlizer fully extends her body to try and block another perfectly placed Santa Barbara shot. Right, Meghan Corso plays some tight defense. Corso led all AHS scorers with five goals in the championship match, which was won by Santa Barbara. Both players will return, along with eight others, to compete again next year.

THEY’LL BE BACK-Above, Agoura sophomore goalie Sara Gratlizer fully extends her body to try and block another perfectly placed Santa Barbara shot. Right, Meghan Corso plays some tight defense. Corso led all AHS scorers with five goals in the championship match, which was won by Santa Barbara. Both players will return, along with eight others, to compete again next year.


By Kyle Jorrey
jorrey@theacorn.com

Seeding teams in a playoff bracket can be a painfully imperfect science, hampered by inside politics and the lack of head-to-head competition between schools separated by hundreds of miles.


Fortunately in the case of Div. IV girls water polo, the playoff selection committee got it right.


The two best water polo teams in the division, Santa Barbara, seeded No. 1, and Agoura, seeded No. 2, met Monday night at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach to decide who would be crowned CIF champion. In the end, it was the top-seeded Dons who showed why they’ve won this championship contest four years running, winning 18-7 over a talented but clearly overmatched team from Agoura.


"(Santa Barbara) is the best team out there when they want to be and they wanted to be tonight," AHS head coach Jason Rosenthal said after the game. "I think their speed in the second quarter kind of took over. They had a few counterattacks and were able to go up four or five goals and we were forced to battle back the rest of the way."



After a strong first quarter, marked by two point-blank range saves by goalie Sara Gratlizer on Santa Barbara’s U.S. national team player Kami Craig, and two long-distance scores by junior Meghan Corso, the score was 4-2 Dons. It would’ve been 3-2 if not for a goal by Santa Barbara’s Kelly Easterday as time expired.


But as the second quarter got underway so did the lethal Santa Barbara attack. Scoring goals with pinpoint accuracy, the Dons registered five goals in less than five minutes, rapidly pushing their lead to 9-2. The four-time defending champs never looked back.


"They were hitting every corner," Rosenthal said. "They weren’t just hitting the side of the goal. They were hitting the bar and it was going in after that. No matter who’s in goal, you’re not going to stop too many of those shots. I thought (Gratlizer) did a good job."


Using their speed in the water and constantly creating two-on-one situations on the counterattack, Santa Barbara found a clear path to the cage and scored frequently. Try as they might to keep the Dons in front of them, the Charger defenders continually found themselves left in the wake.


"They were that much faster than us," Rosenthal said. "As much faster as we are than everybody else that’s how much faster they are. Deservedly so, they work hard on their swimming. That’s why they win CIF titles year after year."


Six players had two or more goals for Santa Barbara, including Cortney Collyer, who led the way with five. Easterday and Sarah Frost each scored three goals apiece.


But in defeat, Corso showed why she is considered one of the best players in this area, and why Agoura will be so happy to have her back next year. For the second straight year Corso had five goals against Santa Barbara in the playoffs, scoring three of them from seven or more meters out.


Even with the game out of reach, Corso never stopped fighting and never stopped trying to lead her teammates—she scored her final two goals in the game’s last minutes to give her 19 total for the playoffs, a team-high.


"We play to win, even if we’re losing 25-0 we still want to give our best effort because after all this is the CIF championship game and we didn’t want to go out without giving it all we had, and I think that’s what we did," Corso said. "And for me personally, I don’t train five hours a day to do nothing. I come and put it to work in the pool."


Despite the lop-sided defeat, most of the Agoura players kept a positive attitude after the match knowing that out of the 12 that competed Monday night 10 would be back again next year—back for another season of Charger water polo and hopefully another run at the crown. The two graduating seniors are Stephanie Pearce and Cassie Cohen.


"I think we all know we have a bright future ahead of us," Rosenthal said. "It’s sad to see the two seniors graduate, they really put in a good effort for us, but we have so many players coming back that‘s its hard not to be think positively. . . . I told them after the game if you work hard and want to be here there’s no reason you can’t comeback next year and win this thing. That put a smile on their faces."


Corso echoed her coach’s sentiments.


"We going to take what we learned from this game and put it to use to get ready for next year," said Corso, who like most of her teammates has a few days off before starting swim team practice. "We’ll still be hungry to win it. . . . Sure, it’s always tough to lose and see your season come to an end, but going through something like this is just going to make us stronger."


Agoura finishes the season with a 26-6 record and its fifth Marmonte League crown in six years. It was the Chargers’ first visit to the finals since they won it all in 2001. The last three years Agoura had lost in the semis before finally break through this season.


"Just to be in the finals and get to play in this atmosphere was a huge accomplishment," Corso said. "It was good we got here, it was a nice finish. But next year we’ll want that icing on the cake to make it that much sweeter."


 

 

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