By Mike Finnerty
mike.finnerty@surewestsports.com
The CIF Sac-Joaquin Section launched the Division II girl’s water polo playoffs back in 2002, and since that time the Division II bracket has been dominated by the Rio Americano Raiders winning all nine of the section championships.
This year, there’s a new DII section champion after the Del Oro Golden Eagles picked up a 10-7 win over the Oakdale Mustangs Saturday at the Roseville Aquatic Center.
“It’s incredible,” said Del Oro co-head coach Lindi Callahan. “These girls have worked so hard this season, I’m so proud of them. They worked so well as a team and you can’t stop that.”
Oakdale advanced to the championship round with a lot of confidence after eliminating Rio Americano in the semis, and that confidence showed early in the first period when the Mustangs went up 3-2 after the first. Del Oro surged ahead in second with goals by Michal Andreatta, Ryllie Haynes, and Joie-Lynn Howard for a 5-3 lead heading to the half.
The Golden Eagles continued to attack in the second, going on what would be a 5-0 run that would see Del Oro grab its biggest lead of the match at 7-3 with 5:52 left in the period. That all-important run was keyed by the scoring of Andreatta and Courtney Weddle, as well as some terrific play in the net by goalie KaitlynnThompson.
In the fourth, Oakdale was unable to string together enough scoring to make a run at the lead, and Del Oro would hold on to celebrate not only its first girl’s water polo title, but the first water polo title for the program.
“Our girls have been playing together for the past four or five years, they all do club together, and it showed in all matches today,” said Del Oro’s other head coach, Mike Saldana.
Multiple Del Oro scorers included Weddle (4 goals), Andreatta (3 goals), and Haynes (2 goals).
As for next year, Saldana had this to say, “We’ve got four good juniors coming back, we have three freshman, JV class is looking good. We’ll be here for a while.”