San Marcos girls water polo’s run at a CIF-SS Open Division championship came to an end with an 18-14 semifinal loss to top-seeded Mater Dei on Wednesday at Woollett Aquatics Center in Irvine.
The Royals, who were the No. 5 seed in the tournament, will continue their season next week in the State Regional Tournament. Wednesday was the program’s first-ever appearance in the Open Division Semifinals.
After the two sides traded goals to begin the game, Mater Dei scored the next three and never surrendered the lead for the rest of the game.
San Marcos trimmed the deficit down to 5-3 by the end of the first, but the high-powered Monarch offense kept it rolling in the second quarter and extended the lead to 10-6 by halftime.
The Royals scored the first two goals out of the break to cut the deficit down to two goals, but Mater Dei immediately responded with three unanswered goals to regain its cushion.
From there, the Monarchs continued to answer San Marcos’ comeback attempts and pour it on offensively en route to the 18-14 win.
Charlotte Raisin and McKenna Stuart paced the Royals’ offense with four goals apiece, while Lily Bordofsky and Sophie Yonker followed with three and two goals, respectively. Jade Pattison rounded out the scoring.
On the defensive end, Bethany King tallied seven blocks in the cage for San Marcos and Raisin swiped a pair of steals.