Santa Barbara Water Polo Club pulled off a championship trifecta on Sunday, winning titles in the 14s, 16s & 18s at the U.S. Girls Club Championships held in Santa Barbara and Goleta.
The 18s needed to put together a two-goal fourth quarter comeback to make the sweep happen, finishing it off when keeper Sami Hill stopped her 23rd shot of the match in the ensuing shootout to give the locals the extra point and a 7-6 win over SET.
“It’s nerve wracking,” admitted Hill, co-MVP of the 18s with Alexis Lee. “We’ve had a couple of shootouts in the past so I kind of know how to handle them but everytime it makes me nervous.”
It helped that her attackers didn’t miss a shot in seven attempts before Hill’s stop.
“It makes you want to block it even more because they scored,” she said.
The 16s defeated CHAWP 9-7 in their gold medal match while the 14s handled SoCal 10-5 in the first gold medal game to start the trend of Santa Barbara championships.
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“It just developed into a three-peat so we’re really excited about that,” Hill said.
None of the Santa Barbara teams lost a match in three days of tournament play for a record of 18-0.
“I feel like we progressed over the tournament,” Kiley Neushul said about the 16s team. “The first couple of games we were really in a slump and now we’ve really stepped it up.”
Keeper Chloe Brooks was named MVP in the 16s division.
The 14s also faced a shootout en route to the gold medal, needing a 13-12 triumph over Commerce in the semifinals to even make the finals. Kelsey O’Brien and Jamie Neushul were named co-tournament MVPs.
