Modesto girls water polo squad wraps up perfect run through MMC
In the past, whenever the Modesto High girls water polo team has grabbed a share of the Modesto Metro Conference championship, it lost a coin flip and ended up with the league’s No. 2 playoff seed.
The Panthers can put away the coin purse this year. They removed all doubt as to who would get that top seed by wrapping up a 12-0 league run with a 16-5 win over Davis at Grace Davis High School on Thursday.
Actually, Modesto clinched the No. 1 playoff seed last week with a 9-8 win over Enochs in the Eagles’ shiny new pool. Thursday was just the cherry on top. The Sac-Joaquin Section Division I girls playoffs begin on Nov. 8 at Johansen High.
“This is our first undefeated league season, and it feels pretty good,” said coach Mike Chiavetta, who, entering the season, believed that this could be a special season for his girls. “We’ve got five really good players that I think can make all-league, and our goalie (Hannah Spiering) is good. We just got a dedicated group of kids who have played a lot of water polo.”
Modesto jumped out to a 6-2 lead after the first quarter, but Davis hung around and trailed just 9-4 at the break.
In the third quarter, however, sophomore Emma Mesches took over, scoring four of her game-high six goals in the stanza. Senior Sophia Mesches added three goals in the game, while junior Marissa Morado scored two.
For the Spartans, senior Bianca De La Cruz and freshman Eleni Davis scored two apiece.
In the varsity boys game, the Spartans defeated the Panthers 15-6 to earn their first league victory of the season, finishing at 1-11.
Seniors Will Davis and Michael Fuzie scored four goals apiece, as did junior Tyler Scola. Goalie Lucas Alba even got into the act, scoring a goal in addition to his 15 saves.
“It was senior night, and I’ve got five seniors on the team,” said Davis coach Andrea Mazza. “It was a good win for them; they needed it.”
Bee staff writer Joe Cortez can be reached at jcortez@modbee.com or (209) 578-2380. Follow him on Twitter @ModBeePreps.
This story was originally published October 30, 2014 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Modesto girls water polo squad wraps up perfect run through MMC."