Girls Take Double Gold
Laguna Beach girls 14 and under and 12 and under water polo teams each won first place in the recent regional Junior Olympic qualifying tournament, bringing double gold to the Laguna Beach Water Polo Club.
Regional Junior Olympic qualifying tournaments are being held countrywide to select teams to compete in this summer’s National Junior Olympic Championship. Both girls teams qualified during the two day event.
“We’ve never had a sweep of the Junior Olympic qualification tournament before with first place in both the 12 and under and 14 and under girls division, so we are pretty excited about this past weekend,” said club administrator Chad Beeler. “Each team has a lot of work to finish on top in this summer’s National Junior Olympics, but we have great potential to be National Champions if we can keep improving and working hard.”
The 14 and under team started the preliminary round with two solid wins by defeating Northwood 14-7 and Kahuna Water Polo Club 14-10, both of Irvine. In the semifinal round, Laguna faced powerful Newport Water Polo Club, which won in a previous meeting. This time Laguna came out on top with a 10-3 victory.
In the championship game against Tustin’s SoCal Water Polo, Laguna girls found themselves down 2 to 0 at the end of the first quarter. For the next three quarters, Laguna’s offense geared up with a final score of 8-5.
The 12 and under girls team’s first win Saturday was 8-5 against Chino Hills’ CHAWP. Later, the girls dominated Los Alamitos with a 12-3 win. On Sunday, the girls won 6-3 win over Riverside. That afternoon the girls crushed United of Los Alamitos 17-8 in the semifinals, and Saddleback El Toro 14-6 in the finals.
