The Morgan Hill Water Polo Club participated in the seventh
annual Maui Invitational from July 18-23 and produced a very strong
showing.
The Morgan Hill Water Polo Club participated in the seventh annual Maui Invitational from July 18-23 and produced a very strong showing.
The 18-and-under boys, made up of current and former players from San Benito and Live Oak high schools returned to defend the title it won two years ago as members of the 16-and-under team.
Morgan Hill defeated a club made up of players from Riverside Poly High School, last year’s CIF Southern California Section winners.
Morgan Hill, which beat Riverside 11-6, was led by former Live Oak star and All-American Justin Short, as well as Shea Coleman, Kyle Fast and San Benito’s Joel and David Smith.
Riverside had no answer for Morgan Hill’s pressure defense and its ensuing fast break.
The 16-and-under boys played Scripps of San Diego in a tremendous championship game. It went through two overtime periods before Morgan Hill eventually lost during a five-player shoot out.
“They were definitely undermanned,” coach Mack Haines said of the team which had only one substitute available off the bench. “In my 40 years being around the game, I’ve never been involved in a shootout for a championship. It was a great game, a crowd pleaser.”
The team was led by Sam Cretcher, Andrew Reimer and Alex Sennert.
The Morgan Hill Water Polo girls club, led by Chelsea Carrillo, Laura Shope, Ashley Rojas, Kristi Short and with strong support play from other teammates, went 3-2 to finish sixth out of 12 teams.
It was the first organized girls trip to Hawaii in the 25 years of Morgan Hill Water Polo Club.
This was Morgan Hill Water Polo Club’s fourth trip to Maui, after many years of competing in the Hawaiian Invitational on Oahu.
