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Marco-
The Clairmont Chieftan’s are a senior heavy team with 9 seniors. Very strong in goal with Ava Barclay who is an outstanding passer. Ava Gatewood is a physically strong attacker with a big arm. Kylie Sagastume is a crafty 4/5 attacker who likes to initiate contact and draws a lot of exclusions. Clairemont will be favored in that game however it’s being played at Cathedral Catholic which is big water. La Jolla could give them trouble on counter attacks. They are a strong swimming team.
Valhalla is a very young team with an elite Sophomore (Academy) goalie Gianna Adams. They also have two outstanding field players in sophomore utility Avery Boone who is big, physical and has a lot of tools in her toolbox. As well as freshman Gia Adams same mold big, physical with a really strong shot. I don’t know where this game is being played but Valhalla also struggles in big water. Hope this helps.
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Seems to matter to the teams that win. . . CCHS celebrated bringing home a Div 2 crown in the boys season a few years back. TPHS girls similarly were amped up about their addition to the hardware case as they started their march from Div 2 to Open division over 3 years.
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I meant up in D1, finals have been CIF-SS teams for many years, semifinals maybe get one CIF-SDS team that squeaks through.
Agreed that D2 and D3 are the fun brackets where teams are playing to show they belong at the next level. Cathedral Catholic, La Jolla, Clairemont girls could make D2-D3 runs this year.
In NorCal they have regional champs as well and teams very much play as hard as they would for a CIF Championship.
In contrast to SoCal though, the D1 finals have typically consisted of 2 different sections with NCS playing CCS Champs most years for boys and girls. This prob leads to a more competitive feeling than SoCal where it has been a lot of rematches.
This year for the girls won’t be a rematch with Oaks missing key players tomorrow — OLu should cruise to the final.
I think typically teams don’t take it seriously because usually it is the same teams playing each other for both finals. For example with the boys, it was JSerra and Newport for both finals the last 2 years and on the girls side it was OLu and Foothill for both finals and then OLu and MD. I still think this year will be a little different However, I do believe that CIF SS is the main goal for each school at the start of the season.
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Looks like Mater Dei and Newport went to the mat in their semifinal with MD emerging with a 10-8 victory. OLu cruised, as predicted above, due to a couple of critical absences.
Over in D.2, it’s an all San Diego final with Clairemont vs. a young Valhalla team that should peak in a couple of years.
In D.3, Cathedral Catholic is a perfect example of the many flaws in the system of divisional placement as they are blowing out every team in the bracket. There ought to be a way for teams to be promoted during the season rather than buried for an entire season based on the previous year’s performance.
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Agree. Cathedral was, at worst, the 5th or 6th best team in San Diego with a record and several head-to-head wins to show it and yet did not have the option to play “up” against the appropriate level of competition (which would have been the Open Division).
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Yes and no re: Cathedral. Cathedral dropped to D2 in San Diego because they went 5-20 (and 0-7 in league play) last year. They were indeed much, much better this year, and I agree it was unfortunate they didn’t have much competition in the D2 playoffs (or, thus far, in D3 regionals). But, hey, they won a CIF banner this year, which they wouldn’t have in Open, so that’s something. On a more global front, it’s extremely rare for a team to go 5-20 and then have such a radical turnaround in a single year (given that the team composition usually remains somewhat the same). So, yes, while it may perhaps be unfortunate, I’m not certain this one example calls for a change in the overall division placement scheme.
What changed?l this year?
Sand is correct. They were dropped based on performance. Coach Jacob Pril is in the midst of rebuilding the program and took great strides this year. I suspect next year @ JMSSD they will be a Top 4-5 team in Open. In the meantime they’ll put two trophies in the trophy case. Look for Coronado both in boys and girls to drop out of the Western conference. Replaced by possibly Point Loma on the boys side and Cathedral on the girls side.
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The girls program at Del Mar is probably making a difference
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OLu 10 MD 6
Wasn’t particularly close at any point. Tough season for Mater Dei given the talent they have but with most of it returning next year they still should be the early favorites to win.
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Agreed. It was a disappointing season for MD, but I think that they will definitely be the favorites next year.
Congratulations to OLu. Though they did not win the CIF-SS Championship, the three year run that this team put together will go down as one of the best groups that I have seen.
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I agree @swimcoach,
While Newport & MD were playing many younger girls this year, OLU has an equally talented younger group. I am not counting OLU out for 2026.
The Water Polo IQ level is high in the OLU program, Much like we saw in the Laguna program 6-7 years ago.