Santa Barbara High’s water polo team dropped its season opener on Friday, traveling to Foothill for a matchup of two of the top-three ranked teams in Division I.
No. 2 Foothill bettered No. 3 Santa Barbara 6-4 after scoring the game’s final two goals.
Anna Brummett brought the Dons even at 4-4 early in the fourth quarter by scoring on a 6-on-5 advantage. The Dons gave up a goal and trailed 5-4 until Foothill scored on a defensive breakdown with 30 seconds remaining.
“We turned it over a lot,” said Dons head coach Mark Walsh. “We just took a lot of opportunities away from ourselves.”
Betsy Hendrix, Kelsey O’Brien and Sophie Trabucco also scored for the Dons while Maddie Trabucco stopped 14 shots in the cage.
Santa Barbara finishes off its season-opening two-game road trip to Orange County with another stiff opponent on Saturday. The Dons will meet No. 1 Corona del Mar a day after the Sea Queens snapped Dos Pueblos’ 68-game win streak.
“Hopefully we’ll learn some stuff and get an idea of what we need to work on,” Walsh said.
