Dons senior Charlotte Hendrix considers a shot against Los Alamitos on Saturday. Hendrix, who just learned she will be playing college water polo at Harvard next season, scored twice. (Presidio Sports Photos)
Anna Brummett’s three goals in the second period followed by a defensive stand in the third quarter did the trick for Santa Barbara High’s girls water polo team on Saturday, as the Dons secured a 11-5 non-league victory over visiting Los Alamitos.
Brummett and Kelsey O’Brien shared a team-high in scoring for the Dons with three each.
Santa Barbara junior Sophie Trabucco tries to block a shot from Los Alamitos' Rachel Fattal.
Santa Barbara took an early 6-2 lead but Los Al scored two straight in the second quarter to cut the lead to 6-4. From that point on, the Dons’ defense allowed just one more goal and Santa Barbara outscored the Griffins 5-1.
“We’re great on defense. We’re always solid on defense but it’s the scoring that gets us, like, pretty much every time,” said Dons senior captain Charlotte Hendrix. “So it feels really nice to score a lot.”
Santa Barbara averaged less than five goals a game in the Dons’ first two matches but scored a combined 24 in their last two.
“I thought we played pretty well,” said Dons head coach Mark Walsh. “We’re seeing the pool a little bit better. We’re just creating a little more than we were a couple of weeks ago so I’m excited where we are right now.”
O’Brien added three assists and three steals to her three goals in what Walsh called a “triple hat trick.” Hendrix and Sophie Trabucco also had three assists.
For Los Alamitos, Stephanie Mutafyan posted four goals and Ella Weber scored once. UCSB recruit Marley Delaney and UCLA recruit Rachel Fattal were held scoreless.
“It was just a really good early season test for us,” said Griffins head coach Dave Carlson. “It pretty much showed us where we need to be to compete with the top teams in CIF.”
It was the second loss of the season for Los Alamitos (7-2), which won the Villa Park Tournament last weekend.
SANTA BARBARA 11, LOS ALAMITOS 5
SB 3 4 3 1 – 11
LA 2 2 0 1 – 5
Santa Barbara – Brumnett 3, O’Brien 3, C. Hendrix 2, Beythold 1, B. Hendrix 1, S. Trabucco 1.
Los Alamitos – Mutafyan 4, Weber 1.
