St. Lucy’s Loses Heartbreaker to Murrieta Valley in CIF Girls Water Polo Final

They beat Murrieta Valley in December. They beat them again in January. St. Lucy’s girl’s water polo team had to believe the third time they met Murrieta Valley would be the charm – and the CIF title.

Instead, Murrieta Valley stunned the Regents, handing St. Lucy’s an 8-7 loss Saturday in the CIF Division 3 championship game at the Irvine Aquatics Center.

Nighthawks freshman Paige Virgil scored the final two Nighthawks goals with 2:18 and 1:13 remaining in the match as Murrieta Valley defeated Glendora St. Lucy’s, 8-7, to capture the CIF Division 3 water polo championship Saturday at the Irvine Aquatics Center.

St. Lucy’s Emily Donohoe scored with 4:18 left to play, tying the score, 6-6.  Two minutes would go by as the teams navigated both ends of the pool before Virgil’s final two goals found their way into the Regents sophomore goalie, Rachel Stock’s cage.  The score was now 8-6, favor of Murrieta Valley.

The final point came with 12 seconds in the game as junior Cambria Shockley found the back of the net.

“It’s just one of those days,” said Regents coach Jeff Rach, referring to how many shots hit the bar of the cage instead of going in the net.

It was the Nighthawks third title in five seasons, as senior teammates Ashley Fedler, Caroline Teets, Sophie Goveia, Veronica Coleman, Missy Hale, and Rylie Shore were each freshmen during the last championship season.

 “They’ve come a long way and developed a lot of chemistry,” Murrieta Valley coach Bryan Lynton said. “With freshmen and seniors on the same team, it’s been interesting, but the freshmen brought a new energy to our programs, so a lot of credit to them.”

The Nighthawks had an 0-5 start included a 16-14 loss to St. Lucy’s in December. They again faced one another on Jan. 15. Again, St. Lucy’s had the Nighthawks number with a 7-6 win in the Murrieta Valley pool.

Following that January win, Rach predicted this meeting.

St. Lucy’s made it to the finals by first winning first place in Sierra League play. In CIF action, they faced Atascadero in the 1^st Round, winning 19-3. Next, they dispatched La Serna 18-9. On Wednesday, the Regents won their semifinal matchup with South Pasadena, 16-8.

Murrieta Valley’s path began by winning first place in the Southwestern League.  With successive wins against Righetti (18-1), El Rancho (11-2), and Arroyo Grande (11-4), they came to face the Regents for the third and final time of the season.

To have witnessed the first half of play in this final match and the score 2-1, fans would wonder if this would be the teams’ lowest scoring affair of the season—truly a defensive effort on both sides.

Senior Caroline Teets tied the game 2-2 with 5:39 left in the third period.  St. Lucy’s stepped it up with two scores to make it 4-2 before Nighthawk junior Megan Geurts notched a goal with 1:49 left in the third and teammate freshman Maddie Sanchez added another thirty seconds later to tie it up 4-4.

Before that period expired, Regents senior Emily Donohoe would put another goal past freshman goalie Abby Goveia to make the score 5-4.

The pace picked up further in the fourth period with Caroline adding another Nighthawk goal with 6:18 left in the game, tying things up for the fourth time at 5-5.

Murrieta Valley took their first lead of the second half when Sanchez scored her second time in the match making it 6-5 with 4:36 remaining.

Describing the Nighthawk’s win, Rach said, “They played great when it mattered.  Fourth quarter, they came down, up by one and they came up and won by one.  They did what they’re supposed to do.”