The San Marino High girls’ water polo team has been working to improve and foster chemistry, but it had yet to secure a win eight games into this season. However, that all changed when the Titans hosted Blair for the first time in the present campaign.
Against the visiting Vikings, the Titans, fueled by the offense of Olivia Deng and solid team defense, won their first game of the season in a match that will go down in the official record 15-9 in favor of the hosts in Rio Hondo League play on Jan. 11.
“It feels great,” San Marino coach Mark Barr said. “It feels great to get a win at some point during the year, so they feel confident about something.”
Deng, a San Marino sophomore, scored at least once in every quarter and finished credited with a game-high nine goals.
“It feels really good because we were on a losing streak, but today we broke it,” Deng said. “Honestly, throughout the quarters my coach gave me a lot of tips, which really helped with progress.”
The offensive outburst by Deng came on the heels of a three-goal game following a loss at home to South Pasadena two days before.
“Olivia has been on fire,” Barr said. “She’s always kind of had the speed but didn’t know what to do with it. Now she knows what to do with it.”
Titan captain Dara Wiebe had three goals against Blair and was instrumental in setting up several others. Also in the scorebook for San Marino were Katelyn Pletting, Madeline Aguilar and Ally Eng with one goal apiece. Blair’s Ava Sass was the top scorer for the Vikings with four goals.
“Being able to click with the team was really awesome,” Wiebe said of her team’s first victory of the season. “We had some really good passes and assists. There is still stuff to work on, but it was awesome.”
It was Blair that had the advantage after the opening period, 3-2. Sass got things started with a goal from close range in the opening minute. The Titans responded with the next two goals. The first came from Deng on the right side, assisted by Pletting. The hosts then took the lead for the first time when Wiebe found the back of the net from close range.
Viking Chloe Held tied things up with a lob shot from long distance before Sass put the visitors up again with the final goal of the quarter with 1:30 left. That would be the last goal the San Marino defense would allow for the next 17:21, a span that included shutting Blair out in both the second and third quarters.
At the 1:32 mark of the second quarter, San Marino drew even again when Deng fired a shot into the corner of the cage. The score was set up by Wiebe, who made a steal and found Deng with a long outlet pass. In the final minute before halftime, San Marino took the lead — for good, as it turned out — when Wiebe assisted Deng for her third goal of the opening half, which ended 4-3 in favor of the host Titans.
San Marino pulled away in the third quarter, adding four goals alternating between Deng and Wiebe. The first came off the opening sprint won by the hosts. Wiebe assisted Deng on a goal 23 seconds in, and the captain added another goal herself with 3:27 to go. Wiebe assisted Deng on another goal when the sophomore’s shot from the center glanced off the Viking goalkeeper’s arm and in. The final goal of the third, which ended with San Marino up 8-3, was scored by Wiebe, who got behind the defense in transition with 1:34 to go.
The fourth quarter saw San Marino put seven more on the scoreboard and Blair be credited with six goals. The Titans scored the first three, starting with one from Eng off the opening sprint assisted by Deng. Deng put in the next two with 6:07 and 5:21 left, both assisted by Wiebe.
Held then scored for Blair with 5:09 left for the visitors’ first goal since late in the opening frame, making the score 11-4. The final goal of the match came from Sass in the final minute to set the official final margin of 15-9.
“Confidence-wise, it will be great for them to understand that we can actually play and we are getting better,” Barr said of the win’s effect on his squad.
First published in the Jan. 18 issue of the San Marino Tribune
