Newport 10Us grab gold

In baseball, they say that good defense up the middle is crucial.

If there was one thing Newport Beach Water Polo Club 10-and-under co-ed Coach Gabriel Buso Goncalves knew going into the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics, it was that he had good players up the middle too.

Center Ben Liechty, center defender Maddox Arlett and goalie Avery Montiel were vital to the team’s success. But it was a team effort that helped Newport Beach win the title.

The local club beat Vanguard, 11-6, for the title Sunday afternoon at Stanford University. Liechty earned tournament MVP honors after helping Newport Beach win its first platinum bracket title in program history.

Another local earned tournament MVP honors Sunday. Recent Corona del Mar High graduate Heidi Ritner’s standout play at goalie helped SOCAL win the 18-and-under girls’ championship, with a 13-6 win over SET in the final.

The NBWPC 10-and-under co-ed team had two girls on the team, Montiel and Chiara Amoroso. Dangerous outside shooters included Quinn Bartlett and Grayson Springborn, while Gavin Appeldorn, Alex Nguyen, Ty Hansberger, Luke Caruthers, William McCarthy, Jack Pinkert, Weston Hartel, Cash Borggreve and Shane Santoni also contributed.

“We knew it would be hard, because Vanguard is a very good team,” Newport Beach Coach Buso Goncalves said. “But we knew if we made some adjustments, we would be able to beat them. We made the right adjustments. The kids were very motivated in that game, and I think that was one of the keys.”

Buso Goncalves said his team, seeded No. 3 in the tournament, caught fire in the second half of the title game after a slow start. Newport Beach, which beat SOCAL, 5-3, in the semifinals, had actually lost to Vanguard in a shootout in the tournament quarterfinals, but played its way back into the final. Newport Beach also lost to Vanguard in Junior Olympics qualifying, Liechty said.

“[The final] was close until the third quarter, and then we scored a lot,” Liechty said. “It felt great, because we usually win by one or we lose to them. This time, we beat them by five. We’ve been chasing them all year.”

Montiel said she was also very happy after the final whistle. This is her first year playing water polo, but she wasn’t intimidated playing with the boys.

“My team was really nice,” she said. “We worked really hard and put in a lot of effort.”

Ritner, meanwhile, provided another highlight after earning Newport-Mesa Dream Team Player of the Year honors as a senior at CdM. The University of Michigan-bound goalie helped SOCAL go undefeated in its seven-game run to the title.

“It felt amazing being able to win with such a great group of girls whose chemistry was incredibly strong,” Ritner said in a text message. “We all came out wanting to win so badly, and I think it just came down to us wanting it more. I couldn’t have asked for a better summer before heading off to Michigan, it was filled with good, competitive water polo and some great new teammates! This tournament has gotten me super pumped to start playing at the next level this year!”

The Corona del Mar Aquatics 18U girls finished a strong 13th in the platinum division after beating Carlsbad, 12-8, in the 13th place game. Coach Kevin Ricks said it was nice to get his whole team back playing together following a busy summer. Chloe Harbilas, Erin Tharp and Sophie Wallace helped the U.S. women’s cadet national team earn silver at the UANA Junior Pan American Championships in Canada, while incoming senior Jaleh Moadelli played with the youth national team at the U.S. Open of Water Polo.

“Getting to JOs and having a little bit of success kind of gives everybody a shot in the arm, the motivation to keep training hard,” Ricks said. “We’re looking ahead to that high school season, which is kind of our focus, so it’s a good job all-around.”

The Newport Water Polo Foundation 18U girls earned bronze in the lower classic division after beating Pacific Polo, 9-8, in the third-place match. Newport had lost to eventual champion Santa Barbara 805 “B,” 8-8 (4-3 in a shootout) in the semifinals.

“We’re working better as a team than we were in the spring session, which is really good,” Newport incoming senior Lissa Westerman said. “We were missing Annie Rankin and Jessica Lynch [for JOs], because they played with SOCAL, so doing that well without them just shows how well we’ll do with all of our team.”

The Sailors got good scoring performances throughout the tournament from incoming juniors Sarah Barker and Kaela Whelan, as well as defensively from sophomores-to-be Karis Couch and Kili Skibby. Goalie Chloe Schilling made three big shootout blocks in a quarterfinal win over Pacific Polo, while goalie Emma Kennedy shut down the same team in the second half of the bronze-medal match.

Other highlights from the weekend included CdM’s 14-and-under girls’ team, which finished sixth in the nation in the championship division.

The Back Bay Water Polo 12-and-under girls, which also featured three girls from Costa Mesa Aquatics Club, defeated Newport, 9-6, in the seventh-place match.