At this point, the Beaumont High School girls water polo team is just trying to polish things up.
The Cougars have locked up the Mountain Pass League title, their first in the program’s four year history, and have their eyes focused on the playoffs.
Thursday’s 16-3 win over visiting Hemet Tahquitz was proof of that. The Cougars (15-8, 6-0) could have poured it on, but they chose instead to pull back at times and looked toward the postseason.
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“We always come out to play and play to win,” Beaumont coach Breck Weiny said. “We were doing some different things, set up different kind of situations. If we see those situations in the playoffs, we will be able to address them.”
Briahna Hendley and Deana Mendoza combined for 11 goals, while seven of the team’s 10 players scored in the game. Hendley led all scorers with 6; Mendoza scored 5. Single goals were scored by Kelsey Lara, Ariel Layne, Aubrey Bolduc, Victoria Pederson and Ashley Roark.
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“One thing I really liked was that our scoring was balanced and we had some girls scoring that don’t normally get goals,” Weiny said. “That has been a question mark for us. We know who are first and second scorers are. Who are our third and fourth scorers? We are getting that sorted out in games like this.”
The Cougars didn’t waste any time against Tahquitz. They led 7-1 after one period of play and were never threatened after that.
“We played pretty good,” Mendoza said. “Still, there were a couple of weaknesses, like our communication was not that good. But overall I thought we were pretty strong.”
Winning their first league title was nice, especially since the boy’s program also won their first league title as well. But the Cougars have bigger goals.
“We are looking to CIF,” Beaumont defender Olivia Dusold said. “We are looking toward that ring, that banner. That is our goal. That is what we want to do this year.”
Beaumont completes the regular season at Hemet on Tuesday and at home against Hemet West Valley next Friday.
