Merced High girls’ depth, defense too much for Sierra as Bears roll to semifinals.
The Merced High girls water polo team continued their march to what they hope will be a second straight section championship with an emphatic 20-5 victory in the second round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II playoffs over No. 9 Sierra on Thursday night at Merced High. The Bears quick, crisp passing set up scoring opportunities throughout the match when their defense wasn’t coming up with steals to create easy goals in transition.
The top-seeded Bears (26-2) scored the first seven goals of the game and built a 13-3 lead by halftime. Merced scored just one goal in the first five minutes of the game, but then scored in a flurry to close out the first quarter with a 6-0 lead. “We started off a little slow, but I think what makes our team great is our ability to work together and find our flow, find our rhythm,” said Merced sophomore Taylor Lung. “That just comes from how long we've been playing together, we know each other. We know what's going to happen next, we’re working together with whatever we’re doing.”
Merced coach Kit Grattan says the Bears’ success all starts on the defensive end. “That's what we work on,” Grattan said. “We play team defense every time. I think that's really key. That wears teams down over time, and then moving the ball quickly makes their defense have to work so hard. And a lot of teams don't have enough bodies so they get tired.”
Grattan is able to sub in four players at a time to keep his team fresh, which helps the Bears create the offensive flurries where they’re going four or five goals in a two-minute stretch. Nine different Bears players scored goals against the Timberwolves. Sarah Slocum paced Merced with five goals to go along with five steals and two assists. Dottie Drury added four goals, five assists and five steals.
The Bears received contributions up and down the roster with Lung chipping in with three goals, three assists and three steals and Elise Metcalf adding two goals, three assists and four steals. Goalie Audrey O’Bruba recorded 10 saves.”It was nice to have a bye, but it was also nice to get back in the water for the second round of playoffs,” said Bears junior Olivia Westerberg, who recorded one goal, two assists and a steal. “We're going on to the third round now. I feel at this point, it’s a mental game, we have to keep cool, trust our game and continue practicing hard.”
Next up for Merced is No. 4 El Capitan (12-7) in an all-MUHSD semifinal matchup on Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 4 p.m. at Merced High’s Dibblee Deck. The Bears swept the Gauchos 9-3 and 15-5 in their two Central California Conference games. Lung says facing a rival like El Capitan just adds to the atmosphere where both teams will be playing for a trip to the section title game.
“I mean, it's a crosstown rivalry, right? So it's always exciting,” Lung said. “We’re going to get a good crowd, good cheering section, but I think the biggest part of those games is being mentally calm, controlling your body, your mind, and your body follows what your mind is doing.”
El Capitan 12, Del Oro 9 – The No. 4 seeded Gauchos punched their ticket to the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II semifinals with a win over No. 5 Del Oro. Alex Martinez scored all three of her goals in the first quarter to help the Gauchos open up a 5-2 lead heading into the second quarter.
Brooklyn Ramsey led El Capitan with five goals and three assists and goalie Grace Phillips was huge, recording 18 saves. “Many of those were on uncovered players who had been left alone or on six-on-five opportunities, as we were man down nine times during the game,” said El Capitan coach Karin Umemura. “Everytime we needed a big save Grace was there and made some phenomenal passes to lead the counter attack where she dropped the ball right in front of our girls at the other end of the pool.”
Martinez added two assists and three steals to go with her three goals. Peyton Adrian recorded two goals, two assists and drew two ejections.
Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.