San Marcos girls water polo punched its ticket to the CIF Division 1 SoCal Regional championship with an 11-10 win over Oaks Christian on Thursday in Thousand Oaks.
After the upset win over the top-seeded Lions, the No. 5-seeded Royals (28-7) will now take on No. 2 Mater Dei in the title game on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Long Beach City College.
San Marcos and Mater Dei have met three times this season, and Mater Dei has come out on top in each of the matchups.
In Thursday’s semifinal, the Royals pulled away for a 7-3 halftime lead thanks to four goals by Charlotte Raisin.
However, Oaks Christian came out of the gates on fire and scored four unanswered goals to tie the game at 7-7. Raisin scored twice more to end the quarter to give her team a 9-7 lead heading into the fourth.
The Lions continued to fight back in the fourth and tied the game at 10-10 down the stretch, but Sophie Yonker scored what proved to be the game-winning goal for San Marcos to bring the game to its final score of 11-10.
While Raisin’s six goals led the Royals’ offensive attack, Bethany King ended the game with nine saves in the cage.