San Benito High senior Shannon Stephens admitted she was downright intimidated and nervous entering the team’s rematch against Santa Cruz on Monday. After all, Santa Cruz’s Meg Hedrick had torched the Haybalers for seven goals in the Sept. 10 match, an 11-10 San Benito victory.
Despite Stephens’ apprehension, she was more than prepared to turn the tables in the rematch. Stephens’ tough defense on Hedrick played a pivotal role in the Balers’ 14-9 victory.
“The first time I played her, she (Hedrick) was really intimidating,” said Stephens, who is in her first year playing hole-set defense. “Now that I’ve got more experience and understand the rules better, I was able to play better defense.”
Balers coach Fred Latimore said from the start of the season that Stephens was a defensive tour de force.
“Shannon played very smart, and she had to play smart because we needed to shut her (Hedrick) down,” he said. “She dominated us the last time we played them, but this time we were able to shut her down. And that was the difference in this game.”
It was a physical, taut battle, a reflection of two teams that have no love-lost for each other. There were individual tussles going on everywhere in the pool, and nowhere was that more apparent than in the fierce back-and-forth action between Stephens and Hedrick, who scored three goals in the rematch.
Unprepared to play hole-set defense in the season-opener, Stephens was more than game this time. Stephens never let Hedrick out of her sight, and as is often the case in a competitive water polo match, the two players engaged in a wrestling match throughout.
“She was holding me with both arms under the water, and I couldn’t do anything,” Stephens said. “It was a little stressful, but I know the ref is not going to call too many fouls for stuff that goes on under water. It was weird, though, because I had never played against anyone who’s done that to me before. You go into a game and it’s just water polo, but people kind of make it really personal. The sport is violent, so there’s already a little bit of friction once you start the match.”
Latimore, whose team improved to 12-4 overall and 8-3 in the Monterey Bay League’s Gabilan Division, said it was great for Stephens to battle against a player of Hedrick’s caliber.
“She (Hedrick) is a really good player and knows exactly what she’s doing,” he said. “She knows how to draw fouls and not get called for fouls. At the college level, you deal with players like that all the time.”
While Stephens led the defensive charge, senior driver Grace Larson led the offensive assault. Larson had a match-high seven goals, fellow senior Karlie Sanchez had three goals and Ceily Hepner also finished with three scores. This was a nice result for the Balers, who have struggled a bit since losing goalie Kelsee French to a pre-existing knee injury two weeks ago. The Balers’ were coming off a disheartening 11-8 loss to Christopher in which they led 4-0 only to see the Cougars come roaring back for the victory.
“This could’ve been a letdown, so it was nice we were able to bounce back,” Latimore said.
While Stephens has been the team’s defensive MVP, Larson has been the offensive powerhouse. Every time Santa Cruz tried to get within striking distance, Larson answered, usually with a devastating skip shot from five to seven meters away. Sanchez also came up with some timely goals, albeit in different fashion.
The right-hander possessed a Midas touch, shooting the ball with accuracy to different areas of the Santa Cruz goal. Two of Sanchez’s goals came from mid-pool, a testament to her shot placement.
It was only appropriate that the team’s three seniors—Larson, Stephens and Sanchez—played well on Senior Day. The trio have made their senior season count.
“I’ve been playing with Grace and Karlie since I was a freshman,” Stephens said. “It feels really good to win on Senior Day. You can’t ask for much more than that.”
