Marauders hang with Miners in tuneup

Though it was only a scrimmage and the score didn’t count, Monache’s girls water polo squad walked out of its home pool compound quite confident in itself Thursday night.

They had just hung with the defending champions of Division II water polo — El Diamante — for four quarters, barely missing the draw at 7-6.

Sure, the Miners had lost most of their senior-dominant players from the previous season, but they’re still the reigning champions and — in Marauders coach Ryan Atchley’s mind — the team to beat.

“It doesn’t matter how many kids they lose,” Atchley said of El Diamante. “Strong programs remain strong. They always have good players coming in and they’ll always be solid.”

Thursday’s tuneup pitted two newly minted Division I foes who crossed paths in the semifinals last fall — a 12-3 victory for El Diamante.

For now, however, Atchley’s plan was to simply take a look under the hood.

“I used it more as a practice to see where we’re at and what we need to work on,” Atchley said. “I told them I wasn’t coaching them to win. I learned a lot about them. Our offense was a little stagnant and we need to work on the counter-attack.”

Monache senior driver Amanda Kaye agreed the team’s offense looked less than fluid.

“Our ball-handling isn’t where it should be right now,” Kaye said. “But we can fix that. All six of us have to get to where we’re aware of where everyone is in the pool. We’re still getting used to playing with each other.”

El Diamante’s Shelby Anderson scored early in the game to give the Miners a lead that always seemed to keep one step ahead of Monache.

Kaye score the first of her game-high four goals late in the first quarter off a missed teammate’s shot, though the Miners’ Allyson Huber quickly responded with the first of her three goals on a fast break with 49 seconds remaining to go back up, 3-2.

The constant uphill climb left Kaye, who fired at least eight shots, wishing for a second chance.

“I’m not satisfied,” she said. “I could’ve done better. Our coach said we weren’t playing to win, but I have a really competitive spirit, so of course I wanted to win anyway.”

Both Kaye and Huber alternated goals in the second quarter — with Kaye nailing an 8-meter shot 20 seconds before the buzzer — but the Miners still held a convincing 5-3 edge.

Atchley gave his girls a halftime pep talk that had the Marauders stepping up the defensive intensity in the third, limiting the Miners to a scoreless, four-minute drought while Blair Roper scored from long range to bring Monache within one.

But Huber and El Diamante’s Bailey Wickliffe each scored to give the Miners their largest lead at 7-4.

Kaye then took matters into her own hands, scoring back-to-back goals in the middle of the fourth about 20 seconds apart.

The first came right out of a Monache timeout, setting up Kaye for a solid 10-meter shot that nailed the left side of the net.

The second came off a perfect pass from goalkeeper Mary Imbach that sailed three quarters of the pool and landed in front of Kaye, who quickly put it in.

Though she rattled several shots off the cross bar, Kaye tried not to let the misses get her flustered.

“I’m not afraid to shoot,” she said. “Coaches like that, but sometimes my teammates don’t like that. I try to get them involved but if you don’t shoot, you don’t score.”

Monache had one more shot to tie it up inside the one-minute mark but a timeout that called for an entry pass to Ally Bernard, who scored in the first quarter, quickly fizzled when three Miners trapped the hole.

Still, Kaye liked what she saw from her squad of eight returning varsity players that may be vying for the EYL title with Porterville this fall.

“It felt really good,” she said. “Last time (El Diamante) beat us by quite a few, but it was nice to stick with them this time.

“I was very impressed and I’m happy with where we’re at.”