Both Husky water polo teams placed fourth in their district playoffs held on Friday and Saturday at Albany.
Both teams won their first games then lost the next two.
The girls opened the tournament defeating Lebanon 13-4 Friday morning.
Krystle Streight led the win with seven goals. Justine Calhoon added two. Alice Davis added one.
Also scoring one goal each were Marissa Lehman, Jessica Mengore and goalie Liz Andersen, her first in four years on the team. With those three goals, all members of the team scored a goal this season.
The Huskies lost to Lebanon by one the previous week.
The difference this time, Coach Adam Lloyd said, was partially the officiating. The Huskies play cleaner, and tight officiating helps them. That wasn’t all that helped the Huskies decisively defeat Lebanon though. The girls were also pumped up and wanted to win this game.
The girls lost their next game to first-seeded South Salem 13-2.
It was the girls second game of the day, and they were tired, Coach Lloyd said. “Our girls were just giving it all they had. We played better than the score shows, especially down the stretch.”
Andersen was the story of the game, Coach Lloyd said. She had 21 saves at goal.
Nichole Martin scored the Huskies’ two goals.
Saturday, the girls faced Redmond for third place and lost 3-2 in a “heartbreaker.”
The Huskies had a shot with just five seconds left but missed the goal, Coach Lloyd said. “Our defense was fantastic. Their defense was good too. They’ve managed to control our offense in all three games against them.”
The Huskies’ goals both came in the second half from Streight and Calhoon. Andersen had 10 saves on the game.
“It was a great season,” Coach Lloyd said. “It was a great end. We fell a little bit short,” but to his knowledge, this is the first time the girls have been to the district meet in years, especially since Sweet Home was one of only three teams still playing on Saturday.
The boys defeated West Salem 10-9 Friday afternoon to get past the first round of playoffs.
With five minutes left in the game, the Huskies led 10-7 and had to start playing to protect the lead rather than scoring.
Jon Lemar received his third exclusion penalty, sidelining him and forcing the Huskies to play one man down.
With about three minutes left, goalie Shawn Adams was called for brutality and ejected.
An opponent was attacking him, Coach Lloyd said. Instead of turning away with the ball, Adams popped it over his head to Jeff Stratman. At some point, the opponent took a swing at Adams. Coach Lloyd didn’t know if it was intentional. Adams responded with a swing of his own.
The resulting brutality call kept him out of the next game as well, and the Huskies had to play two men down for two minutes.
Coach Lloyd had the boys stop trying to score goals and just play keep away from West Salem to protect their score.
West Salem scored only two goals and was unable to top the Huskies.
“It was an incredible finish to the game,” Coach Lloyd said.
Larry Coulter led scoring with four goals. Stratman and Ian Parks each added three more goals.
The next game was forfeited to Sprague because a team must be able to start with seven players. The Huskies had only six.
The Huskies faced Redmond for third place. They lost 11-0.
“The problem we’ve had with Redmond is they’re an extremely fast team,” Coach Lloyd said. “Their game plan is to drive it down and shoot.”
Coach Lloyd outlined a plan they hadn’t practiced that morning to his team, and “it worked for awhile.”
The Huskies kept two of their newer players back on defense, never passing the half-court line.
The Huskies held Redmond scoreless in the first quarter. Redmond scored four by halftime.
“It worked to a point,” Coach Lloyd said. “Then they started breaking it down.”
It was a gamble the Huskies took to try to control Redmond. On offense, the Huskies tried to put the ball in the hands of Parks, Stratman and Coulter, who would turn and shoot. They had a number of shots that just didn’t fall during the game.
“For the boys, I think West Salem was more a show of our team than the Redmond game,” Coach Lloyd said.
“I think it was a very successful season on both sides,” Coach Lloyd said. In the off season, one of the team’s goals is to get more players out next year and increase team depth, Coach Lloyd thinks there are several students looking at it for next year, and interest in water polo is growing.
“I think water polo’s looking up here,” Coach Lloyd said. “I think a lot on the team are planning to swim. We’re looking forward to next year. I think we’re just going to have more and more success.”
All-league honors went to Streight, second team; Martin, third team; and Coulter, third team.
The girls lose seniors Andersen and Streight this year.
By the end of the season, Coach Lloyd didn’t feel he had a young team any more. He credits that to the leadership of Andersen and Streight.
The boys lose seniors Stratman, Alex Wilson and Parks. Jeff especially, with four years of experience, led the offense. Stratman didn’t score goals so much as he helped others to score, leading in assists and steals. Parks transferred in with experience from a school in California, and Wilson stepped up at the end of the season to provide help on defense.