PALOS VERDES ESTATES— It was the biggest nonleague game of the year for the Laguna Beach High girls’ water polo team.
The word “over-prepared” didn’t exist.
“We’ve been preparing and talking about Palos Verdes all year long,” Coach Ethan Damato said. “I have like 10 films on them.”
What did exist though at Palos Verdes High was quite a gap between the Breakers and the host Sea Kings. Second-ranked Laguna served notice that it should be the favorite to defend its CIF Southern Section Division II title after defeating top-ranked Palos Verdes, 10-5, on Jan. 29.
The Breakers (15-5) led by just one at halftime, but then put on a third quarter to remember.
“As a team, we work well with momentum,” said junior goalie Etianne Manetta, who made 11 saves, several of them on point-blank shots. “It started picking up, and then we did great.”
Jessie Holechek scored a six-on-five strike from the left side, then fellow junior Jessica Shusko scored a straightaway goal from the perimeter. Sophomore Yoshi Andersen then added a counterattack goal and the Breakers had suddenly opened a 7-3 advantage with 2:30 left in that third quarter.
It was three goals in just over a minute and Palos Verdes was just about knocked out. After sophomore Melena Masson scored on a lob from the right, the Breakers were up, 8-4, going into the fourth and on their way to the victory.
Shusko guarded Princeton-bound Palos Verdes senior Molly McBee and helped keep her scoreless and Masson also pitched in big-time defensively. Palos Verdes senior Colleen O’Donnell, headed to USC, scored just once, as did sophomore Monica Vavic, the daughter of USC Coach Jovan Vavic.
“We prepared pretty hard for them all week,” Shusko said. “I thought we could go up on them pretty easily. We watched a lot of film on them and they’re pretty inconsistent. If you get in their heads and get up on them early, they break apart.”
Holechek, Laguna’s scoring leader, did it again against Palos Verdes with four goals. Shusko and Masson scored twice each and Lexie Ross and Andersen added single goals.
“I thought once we adjusted, the girls did an incredible job of sticking with the gameplan,” Damato said. “We had a lot of players doing little things for us, earning ejections, making passes. That whole third quarter there were huge steals, huge field blocks, good passes and putting shots away. Everything kind of came together in one big surge there in the third; pretty fun to watch.”
