CIF NorCal water polo playoffs 2024: Miramonte, Sacred Heart Prep, De La Salle, Campolindo, Leland advance
By Joseph Dycus, Bay Area News Group
November 20, 2024
Girls water polo:Â No. 5 Miramonte 5, No. 4 Campolindo 4
MORAGA — With Miramonte's attack sputtering at rival Campolindo in the first round of the NorCal Division I playoffs on Tuesday, star senior Ally Larsen put the visiting team on her back.Â
She scored her first goal on a 6-on-4 power play with 3:48 left in the second quarter to tie the game at 1-1, and then fired a shot past the keeper into the low right corner of the net 46 seconds later to put Miramonte on top.Â
The UCLA commit's third goal of the quarter was her most spectacular, a volley from the halfway line with under 30 seconds left to beat the shot-clock buzzer.
"It's a team effort, because even though I scored the goals, it is the assists that count more," Larsen said. "We run plays as a team to set up the person to score, and I'm just the person who puts it away."
After Campo's Avery Sullivan scored the first goal of the game, her Campo teammate, Lily Holloway, put in two third-quarter goals to tie the game at 3-3 going into the fourth period.Â
A soft lob shot by Ella Binney gave Campolindo the lead with 3:52 left in the game, but Larsen tied it at 4-4 with 1:51 remaining.
Kate Liu scored the winning goal with 1:18 left when she corralled a rebound and put it past the keeper, clinching a game dominated by Miramonte shot-stopper Eliana Bottene (six saves) and Campolindo goalie (nine saves).Â
Miramonte coach John Roemer, while not particularly thrilled by the team's attacking struggles, was happy that his program showed it could win despite the offense not playing up to its lofty standards.Â
"I was telling them to think about every team that wins the NCAA basketball championship," Roemer said. "Every team that wins goes through a game like this. One that they survived. We were ahead, they came back, went ahead, and we tested our resolve, went ahead and then held them off."
Up next is a semifinal visit on Thursday night to top-seeded Sacred Heart Prep, which won two of three matchups with the Matadors this season.Â
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