Despite a slow start, the No. 4 San Benito girls water polo team
had no trouble defeating the No. 5 Carmel Tuesday in the opening
round of the Tri-County Athletic League championship tournament at
San Benito High School.
Despite a slow start, the No. 4 San Benito girls water polo team had no trouble defeating the No. 5 Carmel Tuesday in the opening round of the Tri-County Athletic League championship tournament at San Benito High School.
Despite the closeness of the two seeds, the game was not close after the first quarter, and San Benito won 21-4. San Benito was leading by a narrow 3-2 margin after the first period but came out quickly in the second and allowed just two goals the remainder of the game.
“We hadn’t played in a week, and it showed,” said San Benito coach Derek Kisling. “Once we woke up, we took care of what we needed to do.”
“Our team has a problem with keeping the positive momentum going,” said Carmel coach Hannah Lineberry. “Hollister is a tough team. They played really well together as a team. They know each other and can play off each other.”
Within the first minute of the second quarter Katie Buzzetta scored two goals. She lead the scoring with 12 goals, including a pair of 4-meter penalty shots.
“We were trying hard to draw the 4-meter,” Kisling said. “That is something we have had trouble doing.”
By halftime, San Benito built up an 11-3 advantage
The big lead gave some JV players like Audra Brown, Alyssa Ashford and Kelsey Russell the chance to get some playing experience. Brown scored the only goals for San Benito in the fourth quarter. One was a turnaround shot in front of the net.
“It’s a learning experience. You can tell the varsity game is entirely different than at the JV level,” Kisling said. ” But you never know until you are in there playing. They got a taste of what it’s like. The nerves are gone now.”
Jayme Telles had a solid performance with five goals. Shelli Reid and Kirsten Palm both added single goals. Reid had a near miss on a second goal. Her initial shot was blocked by the goalie, but Reid got the rebound and fired high of the open net.
San Benito starting goalie Krista Maisonneuve came out of the game at the start of the third quarter after jamming her finger. Backup goalie Nicole Divens didn’t allow a goal.
The victory pits the Haybalers against No. 1 Live Oak. The game will be Thursday at 5:30pm at Santa Catalina.
“It gets harder from this point on,” Kisling said. “We are trying to work on some things and make sure we can execute them when need to. We still need a little more polish, but we’ll get there.”
