A third-place finish at this past weekend’s Monterey Bay
Shootout has Gilroy High’s varsity girls water polo team looking
like a possible Central Coast Section playoffs qualifier.
Going 3-1 over the course of the two-day tournament, the
Mustangs beat Watsonville 10-1 in the opener, were given a victory
by forfeit as San Lorenzo Valley failed to show, dropped a
hard-fought contest 10-5 to Santa Cruz, and then finished with an
8-1 victory over Harbor.
GILROY – A third-place finish at this past weekend’s Monterey Bay Shootout has Gilroy High’s varsity girls water polo team looking like a possible Central Coast Section playoffs qualifier.
Going 3-1 over the course of the two-day tournament, the Mustangs beat Watsonville 10-1 in the opener, were given a victory by forfeit as San Lorenzo Valley failed to show, dropped a hard-fought contest 10-5 to Santa Cruz, and then finished with an 8-1 victory over Harbor.
Gilroy did lose to Aptos 11-3 in an exhibition, filling the open time available from the second-round forfeit, but it didn’t count against the Mustangs’ overall record (5-3).
“Especially the games with Aptos and Santa Cruz … our girls played really well,” Gilroy coach Sean La Guardia said. “They played physical teams, I would say very high-caliber teams, and we were able to play extremely good defense over the weekend. Now we’re just trying to get the offense to pick it up a little bit.”
Chelsea Hill led all scorers on the weekend, finishing with three goals in the opening-round win over Watsonville.
Despite losing by five to Santa Cruz, La Guardia said there was nothing to feel bad about considering how good and deep Gilroy’s opponents were.
“One thing about that game that I’m very proud of, that I think is notable, is they were only leading 3-2 at half,” he said. “Santa Cruz is just a very talented team – smart team, well-conditioned team. But it was nice to play them to see … something that we can build upon. I was very happy with [my players] even if it was a loss.”
Beating Harbor by seven in its final contest, the Mustangs were led by goalie Lauren Van Herk, who La Guardia called the player of the game.
“I don’t know how many blocks she had, but she was pretty much the MVP,” he said.
Using an all-around attack on offense, Meagan Collett and Michelle Shields were Gilroy’s high scorers with two goals each.
The Mustangs will have a week off before returning to the pool next Wednesday (Oct. 8) at Carmel. The game is set to begin at 3:30 p.m.
La Guardia said his team would use “the week to get in a little better condition and to start working on some offensive strategy.”
