Water Polo headlines this week’s column due to the fact that the Coronado High School Girls Water Polo Team went undefeated in their first two playoff contests last week. We’ll review the other CHS teams in the order they are scheduled to compete in their playoff games this week.

After earning the No. 2 seed in CIF Division II this year, the Islanders drew the No. 15 seed Monte Vista for their first game. Coronado played 19 of the 20 girls on their roster and won the game 14-0. Sophomore goalie Morgan Ronimus was credited with eight saves and the shutout. Only senior starting goalie Megan Braun didn’t participate in the game, allowing her to rest until the next playoff round.

The Islander scoring leaders were Katie Estrada with three goals; Kelly Phelps, Hannah Sebenaler and Emily Bigham with two goals each; and single tallies from Lizzy Hansen, Molly Patrick, Alana Burgess, Ali Rogers, and Sabrina Anonas.

Saturday’s quarterfinal game was played in a downpour against Orange Glen, but the Islanders emerged with another victory, this one by the score of 12-3. Sebenaler led the Islander scoring effort with three goals. The game unfolded in a unique manner, as the Islanders trailed 1-0 at the conclusion of the first quarter, but rallied for the one-sided victory.

"The girls were excited to be in a playoff environment," said Head Coach Dave Throop of his young squad. "We’ve been playing 11 girls on average in every single game. We don’t have any superstars and we don’t drop off much when we substitute. It’s been a unique season. For as young as we are and as far as the (lack of) playing experience we have, we have done pretty well."

The varsity is comprised of 20 players, two of whom are seniors, and then there are six players from each of the junior, sophomore and freshman classes. There is talent on the team to be sure, but playoff game experience is lacking and Throop knows that element is important at this time of the year. "We lost five seniors who played a lot as a group from last year’s team. Teams have cycles and this group is at the beginning of a cycle, like last year was the end of a cycle."

Their two victories last week runs the Islanders record to 20-9 overall record, with two possible playoff games remaining. Tuesday Coronado will face USDHS at the La Jolla Coggan Family Pool at 6:45 pm. Although the Islanders have defeated the Dons each of the three prior times they have faced each other, the scores have been close. Jan. 5 Coronado won 10-6; Jan. 22 in the finals of the America’s Finest City Tournament, Coronado had to go overtime to win 11-10; and game three of the series played Jan. 28 found the Islanders winning 6-5.

If all goes well in the early week contest, The Bishop’s School is the likely Division II Finals opponent Saturday night, with a 5 pm scheduled start at La Jolla High School.

The Boys Basketball Team finished on a strong note, winning their two games last week and riding that momentum into a No. 6 seed in the Division IV playoffs. The Islanders will host Army-Navy Wednesday evening at 7 pm in the first round game.

The Islanders started the final week of the regular season with a 62-49 home victory over Madison. Coronado was paced by senior Adam Munns who scored 17 points, snared 11 rebounds and blocked three shots. Other fine efforts were turned in by senior Jonathan Smith with six points and nine rebounds; senior Alex Fairman with eight points, 10 rebounds and three steals; five points, four rebounds and four steals from senior Reid McLean; sophomore Ryan Guard scored seven points, while making four steals and dishing out three assists; and fellow sophomore Chas Marks scored 11 points to go with four caroms and a steal.

The Islanders played an up-and-down the floor style of game against the Warhawks and the score was 48-46 in favor of Coronado, one minute into the fourth quarter. Coronado closed out the game with a 14-3 run, which was started by on a clutch three-pointer from sophomore Drew Zeller, followed by a lay-up from Fairman, a jumper from Marks and a Munns lay-up on a fine assist from Smith. In short, the victory was a team effort.

Head Coach Sandy Dillon was particularly pleased with the effort of Adam Munns. "He played very, very well. I think it was his best game of the season. The game was also the first time we had someone with three three-pointers in a game and that was Chas Marks. Alex Fairman also played well."

Friday night the Islanders traveled to Christian High School, and emerged victorious with a 55-46 win over the Patriots. Marks led all scorers in the game with 18. In front of a large, loud home crowd, Christian fell back into a zone defense, which forced to shoot from outside. Marks, the living embodiment of the basketball wisdom "shooters shoot," scored 12 of his points in the final frame allowing the Islanders to outscore the Patriots 22-14 and earn the victory.

Dillon thought Marks was a key to the game. "He kept shooting and he had to take the three-pointers. We couldn’t get the ball inside to our post players and we had to shoot over them. Brad Munns hit some key shots to keep us in the game."

The victory came with a high price tag however, as senior Co-Captain Reid McLean sustained a sprained ankle, which will keep him out of Wednesday’s playoff game against Army-Navy. McLean, who is one of the best track and field athletes in the CIF San Diego section, will be especially missed on the defensive end of the floor, according to Dillon. "Reid can go down on either low block and help on their big man and he can go side to side on the block and get a hand on the ball. I told him early in the season, ‘get down there and gamble. Do what you have to do.’ "

Last week’s games earned the Islanders a 16-8 regular season record, and they gave as good as they got in the Harbor League, going 5-5. Two of their conference opponents earned No. 2 seeds, Hoover in Division II and Crawford in Division III, so the Harbor League was unusually competitive this season.

Wednesday’s playoff game against the Army-Navy Academy will mark the second time the Islanders have faced the Warriors this season. In Coronado’s second game of the year played in the Small Schools Tournament, Coronado prevailed 41-38.

Dillon is happy with this year’s squad, which frankly is better than the sum of its individual parts. "We play hard and make other teams look bad. This whole bunch of senior kids has been great."

The CIF works in strange and mysterious ways. In years past, The Islander Boys Soccer Team went unloved and underappreciated by the other section soccer coaches.

Last week the Islanders defeated Madison 6-1 on two goals from both Kelcey Fisher and Bennie De La Rosa and single goals from Stuart Gallant and Nick Hamilton. They then lost to fellow Division III member St. Augustine by the score of 2-0 and wrapped up their undefeated Harbor League season with a 1-0 victory over Crawford. Gallant scored the lone goal in the game, which earned the Islanders the distinction of being the only team in the San Diego section to go through their league season undefeated. After starting the season 2-3, Coronado finished 14-1 for a 16-4 overall record, 10-0 in the Harbor League.

Armed with some momentum, but with the recent loss to St. Augustine in the back of his mind, Head Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu entered the coaches’ seeding meeting Saturday morning and delivered his 90-second presentation regarding his team and their place in the soccer universe. Started slow, finished strong, were league champs, etc. Later in a poll of the coaches, Hiatt-Aleu said he thought his club deserved the No. 4 seed.

When the smoke cleared, the Islanders emerged with the No. 2 seed behind USDHS and immediately ahead of St. Augustine, the team they had lost to two days before, in their only meeting.

Hiatt-Aleu, never one to be accused of not speaking his mind, said of the seemingly nonsensical seeding process, "it was weird and really not fair. The CIF has to find a way to do it right, but I didn’t like the power rankings either. There were teams left out of every division this year that should have been left in. We had more wins than anyone else in Division III and I guess the loss to Saints didn’t matter. If we win Friday night, I think we will face St. Augustine in the semi-finals at a neutral site."

Hiatt-Aleu sensed a potential benefit from the loss to St. Augustine. "Maybe that was kind of what we needed. We needed a big test, and if you are going to lose, lose to a really good team. Now we know we’re not that good and it will bring our young guys down to earth."

In other soccer news, the Islanders were well represented on the All-Harbor League Teams, with Gallant, Hamilton and center back Travis Lindsay all named to the First Team. Second Team honors were accorded to outside midfielder Blair Geiss, goalie Hugo Vera, and center back Michael Dykstra.

Stuart Gallant was named Harbor League MVP, which according to Hiatt-Aleu is the first time a Coronado boys soccer player has earned that distinction. "Stuart scored 10 goals in the 10 Harbor League games. We were 10-0 because of him. We beat Crawford twice by the score of 1-0. He assisted on the goal in the first Crawford game and scored the winning goal in the second game."

Now it’s on to the playoffs. Friday night Coronado will host the winner of the Point Loma vs. San Dieguito Academy game, which will be played Tuesday evening. The quarter-final game will be played at Coronado’s Niedermeyer Field at 6 pm. Said Hiatt-Aleu of the coming playoff game, "it would be nice to have a big crowd there Friday night."

The CHS Girls Soccer Team took a more conventional route to their No. 2 seed in CIF Division III. They defeated Point Loma Monday at home 1-0 on a Sasha Vido goal and then Wednesday, Vido again accounted for the lone goal in the game as Coronado defeated Scripps Ranch 1-0. Coronado played both games without the services of senior Ashley Walsh, who was unable to play due to illness.

Head Coach Miles Ramirez sauntered into his seeding meeting with a gaudy 22-3-2 overall record and an 8-3-1 record in the Western League. He left with the No. 2 seed, tucked behind Western League champion USDHS and their No. 1 seed. "There was no argument for the first and second slots," said Ramirez. "The discussion started at No. 3 and below."

The bad news is that the injury bug hit Coronado last week, which according to Ramirez is due at least in part to the poor condition of the Islanders home field. "We lost Erin Buss (senior midfielder) in the pre-game to a severe ankle sprain. Later in the first half, defender Maureen Mulvey sprained her ankle. She may be back if we make it to the finals. The school district should be ashamed of the field. The conditions leave us susceptible to injuries. I’m concerned about the safety of the students. We’re asking for a kid to get hurt. In this case, we lost two players."

As a result, Ramirez has opted to play Saturday evening’s quarter-final game at Otay Ranch High School on an artificial turf surface. The game will begin at 6 pm and their opponent will be the winner of the San Dieguito vs. Clairemont game, which will be played Wednesday. Another factor in the decision is that artificial turf will enable Coronado to make the best use of their team speed on the uniform surface.

The Division III tournament seeding lays out nicely for Coronado, according to Ramirez. The section’s hotter teams entering the playoffs, which include Our Lady of Peace, USDHS and Mission Hills, are all in the opposite side of the bracket. If the Islanders win their game Saturday, Ramirez expects to play Valhalla High School on a neutral site to be announced next Wednesday.

Although they finished with a 10-16 overall record, 4-6 in the Harbor League, no CHS winter season sports team improved more during the course of their season than The CHS Girls Basketball Team.

Unfortunately, with 12 teams competing in Division IV, only eight teams make the playoffs and Coronado was the ninth team in the field. A total of five league champions plus Francis Parker, Bishop’s and Horizon made the playoffs.

"We’re better than two of the teams that made the playoffs," said Head Coach Toler Goodwin, who served on the committee that seeded all five divisions in the CIF San Diego Section’s girls basketball tournament. "In our non-league schedule we were playing big schools like Valley Center and Grossmont. Some of the other teams had non-league games against Calexico and Indio. But since we had five league champions in Division IV, there wasn’t a lot of ranking to do."

Last week Coronado traveled to Madison Tuesday and came away with a 53-43 victory. They were paced in the game by sisters senior Ashley Depfer and freshman Tiffany Depfer. "Both Depfers played very well in each of our games last week," said Goodwin. "They played well both offensively and defensively." Tiffany tickled the twine for 13 points against Madison, followed by 12 for both Ashley and Brooke Becky.

Coronado then completed their season at Christian and fell to the Harbor League champions by the score of 59-49. Tiffany went for 14, followed by Ashley’s 10 points, seven points from Becky and six each from Farrell Pompa and Jessica Davis-Ricci. "Tiffany scored and was not forcing her opportunities. She got fouled and converted her free throws. Against Madison she was 7-8 from the line and she was 6-6 against Christian. She made the shots she had and when she goes to the foul line, she takes advantage of that."

Of the aforementioned players, only Ashley Depfer graduates and the three-guard rotation that started games at the end of the season, which includes freshman Tiffany Depfer, sophomore Becky and junior Davis-Ricci, figures to return intact. "The way we finished looks good for next year," added Goodwin.