The Campolindo girls' water polo team has become one of Northern California's most dominant sports programs. On Nov. 15, they capped their brilliant season (25-3, 5-0) with a hard-fought 7-4 win over archrival Miramonte (18-8, 4-1), capturing their third consecutive Division II NCS title. They've now reached the finals in six consecutive seasons.
The Mats, who lost 12-6 and 12-7 to the Cougars during the season, drew up some special plans for the Cougars' high-powered offense. They committed to eliminating standout senior Hannah Buck, who didn't score until the fourth quarter. They also aimed to take advantage of exclusion penalties, something Campo is known to be liberal with since they have one of the best goalkeepers around, senior Madison Tagg, who is committed to play at Cal next fall.
Miramonte led the game 1-0 at the end of the first quarter, but in the second it was all Campolindo. Campo scored three unanswered goals, punctuated by a beautiful shot by senior Rachel Lewin, who led all scorers with three goals.
Campolindo led 4-2 heading into the third quarter, and Miramonte went a man-up on a number of occasions, but it was unable to capitalize because of excellent defense from Tagg. With 1:53 left in the third quarter, Hailey Eberle scored Miramonte's last goal of the afternoon bringing the score to 6-4.
Heading into the fourth quarter, Campo's head coach Kim Everist ordered her girls out of the pool to offer some inspiration. When asked about the motivational speech, Everist laughed, "Motivation. That's a nice way of putting it. I felt like we were playing tight and tentative. I told them 'look to your right and look to your left and let's play like we have all season.'"
The speech worked and Campolindo scored once more to notch a 7-4 win.
Campolindo was thrilled with the win and its season. "This is the most successful senior class ever," Everist said in her post-game interview.
It's a bold statement, but a well-founded one. Just a few weeks ago, the Cougars defeated another local rival, the San Ramon Valley Wolves 7-5 to win the NorCal Championships, a tournament held at Sacred Heart every fall. With the victory, they ended SRV's 52-game winning streak.
Winning the NorCal championship for the second time in three years was huge for the squad, but Everist was leery of the win.
"It's dangerous coming off a big NorCal win against SRV," she explained. "NCS is the important one. You can't win NorCal then not win NCS."
While the Lady Cougars came out on top, the Mats had plenty to be proud of. "We played our best game of the season," said first-year head coach Megan Calderazzo. The Mats had a great season and a strong playoff run, outscoring their opponents 38-1 (Concord High, Justin Sienna) in their first two NCS-tournament matches before playing Acalanes in the semifinals. They beat the Dons 10-7 after taking a 5-1 lead at the half.
Acalanes coach Misha Buchel is excited for the future of his team after a strong season (16-11, 2-3) "We're bringing the band back to together next year. This season was the appetizer," he added, "and if everyone commits to playing club and swimming in the spring, we're going to be primed for a big year next season."
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA