Boys Water Polo (18-12)
Breakers led in both their D1 playoff games but could not close them out losing 9-6 to #1 Newport Harbor (28-1) and 9-8 to #4 seed Mater Dei (20-9). The lack of depth contributed to the losses in very tough physical defensive games. Breakers led Newport 4-3 at the half and the match was tied 4-4 after three periods. Zach Cord led in scoring with two goals with single scores by James Nolan, Logan McCarroll, Colton Gregory, and William Kelly. Caden Capobianco had 11 saves and two steals. Against Mater Dei, Laguna led 7-6 after three periods but couldn’t hold on. Colton Gregory had four goals, Will Clark three.
Laguna faced San Clemente (17-12) for 7th place this past Thursday at Capistrano Valley in a Laguna “home match” due to the undersized Laguna Community Pool. State playoffs and schedules will post at www.cifstate.orgon Sunday evening, November 11.
Cross Country
Breakers have the CIF Preliminaries this weekend, November 10, at the Riverside City Cross Country Course. Top 24 in each enrollment division advance to the finals on Saturday, November 17. From the section finals, the top 7 teams in each of the five divisions advance to state on November 24 in Fresno. Breaker Boys have won three state titles but only one section title and never in the same season as the state titles. This year’s team is remarkable in all-five scoring runners are posting times usually seen only in your top one or two runners. The girls are running well and should qualify for state, too. Overall Laguna Boys have qualified for the Southern Section CIF finals 19 straight years entering 2018 and the girls 15 straight years. Laguna has advanced to state 11 times with the boys and 12 times with the girls squad.
Girls Tennis (13-10)
The Sunset Wave League teams, Laguna and Huntington Beach, were unranked and overlooked but have stormed into the D3 semifinals this week with those matches scheduled for this past Wednesday, November 7. Finals are scheduled for Friday, November 9, 1 p.m. at the Claremont Club in Claremont.
Breakers continued their run after opening with an upset of #4 Alta Loma on October 31 at home. In that match the Breakers easily beat the Braves 12-6 using even using substitutes for some starters. On November 2 they dispatched Wilson HS from Hacienda Heights 13-5 with seven wins coming in doubles. The Wildcats #1 player in singles swept the three Laguna players 6-4, 6-4, 6-0. On Tuesday this week, Laguna tied #5 Rancho Cucamonga 9-9 but won the tie-breakers on games 78-63 on the loser’s courts. Ella Pachl and Sarah MacCallum swept their singles matches giving up only one game total and the doubles squads played very tough against the host Cougars. The semifinal contest had the Breakers against #1 Long Beach Wilson at home for their first semi’s appearance since 2014. Overall Laguna has won 11 titles in 12 trips to the finals and has advanced to at least the semifinals 18 times since teams playoffs began in 1975.
Girls Volleyball (19-13)
Breakers fell in the SSCIF D3 finals at Cerritos College 25-19, 25-19, 25-11 to D3 #1 Village Christian. Breakers were up 8-3 in the first set before losing their confidence and the match. Credit the Crusaders in their rally for the title.
On Tuesday, Laguna opened their 11th trip to the State CIF playoffs with a tough 25-18, 23-25, 25-14, 25-23 win over Xavier Prep (29-9) from Palm Desert. After blowing a 21-17 lead in set two, Laguna easily rolled in set three 25-14 with Cambria Hall and Piper Naess each recording eight kills in the set. In set four it looked like the Laguna could not shake the Saints who kept making plays to stay in the match leading 23-22 at one point. Laguna closed out the match on a classic Carballo-Patchell-Naess kill play with Piper tooling the block for the point followed by a serve by Naess returned for a perfect dig by Piper to Soren Patchell who delivered the set to Cambria Hall for a crushing cross-court kill. The final point came on a duplicate play sending the Breakers to the second round on Thursday, November 8 where they hosted D4 Champion Quartz Hill. If the Breakers win, the next game is Saturday, November 10, 6 p.m. at Dugger Gym against Garces/Bakersfield or Bishop Montgomery.
Stat Leaders vs. Xavier Prep: Kills – Naess 29, Hall 24, Digs – Carballo 18, Naess 14, Hall 12, Webb 10; Assists – Patchell 44, Hagopian 11, Blocks: Strawn 1 solo, 4 assists, Fraser 1 solo, 1 assist.
