The Lady Acorn Water Polo Team took fifth place in a field of
eight top CCS teams last weekend during the Sacred Heart
Tournament. This year
’s event broke the eight teams into two pools of four teams for
the contest.
The Lady Acorn Water Polo Team took fifth place in a field of eight top CCS teams last weekend during the Sacred Heart Tournament.
This year’s event broke the eight teams into two pools of four teams for the contest.
The Acorns drew the B pool with Sacred Heart, Saint Francis, and Soquel. In the A pool were Palo Alto, Presentation, Santa Catalina and Burlingame. Each team played every team in its pool once, and then the first place team from the A pool played the first place team from the B pool for first and second place in the tournament.
Live Oak’s first match on Friday was with Saint Francis. Just like the last time they played, Saint Francis proved themselves a tough opponent with excellent speed, size and toughness. The Acorns put up a good fight but fell 9 – 4. Neither the players nor their coach felt they played their best polo, but the team remained optimistic for the rest of the tournament.
“We could have beaten Saint Francis this morning, but our shots just weren’t there… In the first quarter, we just didn’t play properly,” Coach Sharon Hyrne said.
As if facing the powerful Saint Francis wasn’t challenge enough, the Acorns drew Sacred Heart in round two on Friday. At 18-1, Sacred Heart is the top-ranked team in the South Bay Area, and has only been beaten this year by Davis High School from the Central Valley.
The Acorns were down early 8 – 2 at the end of the first quarter. They ultimately lost to the powerful Sacred Heart team 14-7.
“We gotta learn to learn to play right away,” Live Oaks Breanna Sennert said following their defeat. “Like our first quarter, they scored 8 on us… and then 6 the rest of the way.”
Team co captain Ronni Gautschi added, “We need to improve our passing and our counter. Instead, they countered on us. When they leave, we need to go with them.”
Saturday dawned wet and cloudy for the Acorn’s 8:30am game. A thick mist rose off the water, making it tough to see clearly to the far side of the pool. The girls put Friday’s losses behind them and saw a new opportunity against Soquel, the remaining team in their pool. Live Oak came out on fire in the first quarter and opened up a big lead. Leading with a score as high as 8 to 1, the ladies coasted to an 11 – 6 victory, earning the right to play Burlingame for the fifth place spot in the tournament.
An upbeat Gautschi was much happier with the first game of the second day.
“We played very well, Breanna especially,” she said of her teammates four goals to lead Live Oak in the contest.
When the Acorns took the water for the final game of the tournament, they were charged for action.
The game started as a defensive battle with Burlingame scoring first.
But Live Oak wasn’t about to give in or give up. The ladies scored twice for 2-1 lead in game that quickly became a tightly contested battle of wills.
As the fourth quarter came, the Acorn players yelled, “You gotta want it to win it, and we want it more!”
Proving they meant what they said, the ladies stayed strong to squeak out a 10-8 win of the talented and well-matched Burlingame squad.
Overall, Live Oak played a balanced game with strong offensive and defensive showings throughout the team.
Co-captain Chelsea Carillo played especially well, stopping 15 shots on goal with many great saves.
The final victory gave Live Oak fifth place in the tournament. Gautschi led the Acorns with 13 goals, Breanna Sennert added 8, Laura Melroy had 4, Amy Marshall had 2, and Ashley Rojas, Alyssa Hendrick, Laura Shope, Amanda Rosenberger, and Suzie Burdman each had one.
