Freshman Valerie Wraith drives in and scores for Northwood Tuesday. (Photos courtesy Michael An, For OC Sports Zone)
Northwood’s girls water polo team opened the CIF Division 4 playoffs defeating Capistrano Valley 8-5 Tuesday afternoon at Northwood.
Northwood (20-7) moves on to the second round to face Long Beach Millikan (19-10) Thursday at 5 p.m. at Millikan.
To see the slide show, please click on the first photo
On Tuesday, Capo Valley jumped out to a 3-2 lead at halftime. However, led by sophomore Lauren Nguyen, the Timberwolves moved out to a 5-4 lead after three quarters.
Northwood finished strong and senior co-captain Hannah Miller fired off a long ranged shot for a goal in the final minute to account for the final margin.
Freshman standout Valerie Wraith finished the game with five goals to lead Northwood. Nguyen had two goals and Miller had one to complete the scoring. Nguyen also had a team-high five steals.
Sophomore Sanjana Venkatesh had 11 saves and was able to shut out most of Capo Valley’s two-meter shots.
“Even though most of our girls have CIF-SS (playoff) experience, I could tell that they were really nervous in the beginning,” said Northwood Coach Kyle Kim-Em.
“We needed to wake up at halftime and that’s exactly what the girls did.
It wasn’t a perfect game but the second half was much more reflective of what our team can do. We need to stay focused and intense from the very beginning of each CIF-SS match otherwise it’s going to be real difficult for us to win and advance.
“We have a tough game against Milikan, who has beaten us twice by one goal each time. I think both of our teams match up well and it’s going to be interesting to see who comes out and wants it more.”
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