Rosary’s Victory Leaves Coach Feeling Better

The Rosary High girls’ water polo team turned in a performance Saturday that Coach Todd Sprague couldn’t even dream about.

Mainly because he couldn’t sleep in anticipation of the fourth-ranked Royals’ game against No. 5 Marina.

In fact, Sprague was so stressed about the game that his lower back stiffened to the point he could barely get out of bed Friday.

But by the final buzzer of Rosary’s 12-8 nonleague victory Saturday at Servite High, the stress had cleared up.

“I felt like I could run a marathon,” Sprague said.

The Royals (13-2), 1998 Southern Section Division III champions, played their best game this season in their biggest game this season.

Marina (14-5), defending Southern Section Division I champion, defeated Rosary two out of three times last season.

“This wasn’t a perfect game, but it was pretty close,” Sprague said. “This was about as good as we could play. They are the Division I champs. This means a lot to us.”

Rosary grabbed control of the game early, establishing a tough defense and getting three early goals from the two-meter position--two by Natalie Golda and one by Julie Henn--for a 3-0 lead.

“Their two-meter players just dominated us,” Marina Coach Dave Carlson said. “The game was pretty much decided in the first half when they established control of the two-meter.”

Marina, which trailed, 7-3, at halftime, stepped up the pace on offense in the second half and had opportunities to get back in the game, but Rosary goaltender Britini DeGrazio made four impressive saves in the third quarter to thwart the comeback attempt. DeGrazio finished with nine saves.

Rosary’s depth took over from there and five Royals scored in the second half. Golda and Meghan Monahan each had two goals for Rosary, which had a 10-5 lead after Colie Barson’s 30-foot blast at the end of the third quarter.

Cara Chlebicki had two of her three goals for Marina in the final two minutes.

“It was a blowout in the fourth quarter,” Carlson said. “But our girls played all the way through. They were definitely better than us but we’re getting there.”

Rosary, on the other hand, seems to have gotten there already. And with the Southern California Championships beginning Thursday and the playoffs just around the corner from that, the Royals seem to be peaking.

“This was our biggest win of the season, no doubt,” Sprague said. “We’re clicking right now. We couldn’t have picked a better time to play good water polo.”

In other nonleague games:

Capistrano Valley 6, Santa Barbara 5--Ashley Stachowski led the Cougars with three goals. Santa Barbara scored three goals in the fourth quarter, the final with 2:19 left in the game. The Dons missed a shot with four seconds left.

Coronado 7, Newport Harbor 5--Jen Rodriguez-Bruno had four goals to lead Coronado (20-0).

Kyndra Cox and Katherine Gregg each scored twice for Newport Harbor (12-5).