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Redondo water polo routs Culver, scores CIF berth
by John Tawa
Redondo's 11-0 whitewashing of Culver City last Wednesday in girls' water polo was easy. But the road from a fledgling program three years ago to CIF Division IV playoff qualifier this year was anything but.
The Sea Hawks struggled in their first year, finishing near the bottom of the Bay League. Last year's team improved to 13-11 overall. Only a heartbreaking overtime loss to El Segundo kept them from making the playoffs in the very competitive league.
Making the playoffs was the senior-laden team's primary goal this season. The win over Culver, which improved Redondo's league record to 4-0 and assured it of no worse than a third place finish, fulfilled that goal.
"It's the most exciting thing ever," said senior co-captain Roxanne Raksnys. "We lost our chance last year. But now it's amazing, because we're playing so well. We're together as a team."
Now, the Sea Hawks (16-5 overall) have set their sights even higher. They want to win the Bay League, a daunting task with powerhouses Santa Monica and Peninsula still standing in the way.
"I think we can actually win the league," said senior co-captain Sarah Valencia. "Coach [Sean Nollan] said before the season started that this team could go to the finals of CIF. I thought he was crazy."
Co-head coach Andrea Koze didn't think Nollan's optimism was crazy at all.
"Last year, they got it in their heads that they could have made CIF," she explained. "This year, they were driven to do a lot better and to do really well. And they have."
The Sea Hawks played the Culver City game with the urgency of a team pushing for a title. Even without Valencia, who swam sparingly due to a shoulder injury, Redondo played like champions, jumping on the Centaurs for four quick goals in the first quarter.
Redondo got all the scoring it needed in the game's opening seconds. After controlling the ball on the opening sprint, Maggie Vera sent a skipping shot from mid-pool past the Centaur goalie for a 1-0 Redondo lead. A goal by Raksnys and two by Lara Williams, one on a spectacular spin move, extended the lead to 4-0 before the quarter ended.
"We knew coming into it that this was our playoff game," Raksnys said. "We came out hard in the beginning."
The Hawks continued their domination in the second quarter, getting goals from Raksnys and Williams, and outstanding defensive play from Vera and Betsy Schroeder. Stellar sophomore goalie Malia Wagner, all-league last year, had very little to do in the first half, making just one save. But she stayed in the game quarterbacking the defense and throwing textbook outlet passes to the wings.
Five goals followed for Redondo in the second half. Schroeder, who was urged by Nollan to "pull the trigger," did so from 10 yards out, finding the left corner of the goal to give Redondo a 7-0 bulge with 5:42 left in the third quarter. A Williams left-handed goal and one by Laura Miller from point blank range made it 9-0 after three. Kelsey Haroldson scored from out front in the fourth quarter, as did Williams, who potted her fifth goal with a defender draped all over her and just 2:27 left in the game.
Meanwhile, Wagner was rarely challenged. She finished with four saves. Only two shots even remotely threatened the goal. Culver's best chance came with 12 seconds to go, but a shot from six yards went wide.
The shutout was Wagner's fifth of the season, an amazing feat considering how difficult it is to blank an opponent in water polo.
"You don't win games on offense," Nollan said. "If you can't stop them in the cage, you can't beat a team."
After the game, Nollan turned his attention to defending league champion Santa Monica, whom Redondo played yesterday after Easy Reader went to press.
"If we can get up on Santa Monica, that should pave the way for a championship," he explained. "But that's the big hurdle." ER