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Sports

Murrieta Valley Girls Capture CIF Water Polo Title

The Nighthawks add a third title in five seasons, defeating St. Lucy's, 8-7, for the CIF Division 3 crown.

OK, so it wasn’t back-to-back CIF girl’s water polo titles. But the six Murrieta Valley High seniors that won it all as freshman are thrilled with bookend titles.

And they have a freshman to thank.

Nighthawks freshman Paige Virgil scored the final two Nighthawk goals with 2:18 and 1:13 remaining in the match as Murrieta Valley defeated Glendora St. Lucy’s, 8-7, to capture the CIF Division 3 water polo championship Saturday at the Irvine Aquatics Center.

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“Well, today was a great win. It was just back and forth. We knew it was going to be a close game,” Murrieta Valley coach Bryan Lynton said. “We did a great job defensively—that’s the bottom line.”

St. Lucy’s Emily Donohoe scored with 4:18 left to play, tying the score, 6-6. Two minutes would go by as the teams navigated both ends of the pool before Virgil’s final two goals found their way into the Regents sophomore goalie, Rachel Stock’s cage. The score was now 8-6, favor of Murrieta Valley.

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The final point came with 12 seconds in the game as junior Cambria Shockley found the back of the net.

“It’s just one of those days,” said Regents coach Jeff Rach, referring to how many shots hit the bar of the cage instead of going in the net.

Experiencing a CIF Championship was something that was beginning to feel routine when the Nighthawk girls won two years straight, 2007 and 2008.

Teammates Ashley Fedler, Caroline Teets, Sophie Goveia, Veronica Coleman, Missy Hale and Rylie Shore were each freshmen during the last championship season.

These seniors, along with their underclassmen teammates, have brought back the winning tradition and will forever be known as CIF Champions.

“They’ve come a long way and developed a lot of chemistry,” Lynton said. “With freshmen and seniors on the same team, it’s been interesting, but the freshmen brought a new energy to our program, so a lot of credit to them.”

To get here wasn’t easy for this season’s Nighthawks. A 0-5 start included a 16-14 loss to St. Lucy’s in December. They again faced one another on Jan. 15. Again, St. Lucy’s had the Nighthawks number with a 7-6 win in the Murrieta Valley pool.

Following that January win, Rach predicted this meeting.

St. Lucy’s made it to the finals by first winning first place in Sierra League play. In CIF action, they faced Atascadero in the 1st Round, winning 19-3. Next, they dispatched La Serna 18-9. On Wednesday, the Regents won their semifinal matchup with South Pasadena, 16-8.

Murrieta Valley’s path began by winning first place in the Southwestern League.  With successive wins against Righetti (18-1), El Rancho (11-2) and Arroyo Grande (11-4), they came to face the Regents for the third and final time of the season.

To have witnessed the first half of play in this final match and the score 2-1, fans would wonder if this would be the teams’ lowest scoring affair of the season—truly a defensive effort on both sides.

Senior Caroline Teets tied the game 2-2 with 5:39 left in the third period. St. Lucy’s stepped it up with two scores to make it 4-2 before Nighthawk junior Megan Geurts notched a goal with 1:49 left in the third and teammate freshman Maddie Sanchez added another 30 seconds later to tie it up 4-4.

Before that period expired, Regents senior Emily Donohoe would put another goal past freshman goalie Abby Goveia to make the score 5-4.

The pace picked up further in the fourth period with Teets adding another Nighthawk goal with 6:18 left in the game, tying things up for the fourth time at 5-5.

Murrieta Valley took their first lead of the second half when Sanchez scored her second time in the match making it 6-5 with 4:36 remaining.

Describing the Nighthawk’s win, Rach said, “They played great when it mattered.  Fourth quarter, they came down, up by one and they came up and won by one.  They did what they’re supposed to do.”

Nighthawk senior, Missy Hale, speaking about her team: “My team is awesome,” Hale said. “That’s all I’ve gotta’ say. There’s no way I can do without any of these girls. It was a team effort, that’s for sure. We’re CIF Champions!”

“It was amazing,” Virgil added. “I’m speechless. I’m so happy.”

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