Daily Pilot High School Athlete Of The Week:

Kate Baldoni, who also played soccer, volleyball and softball growing up, now just sticks to water polo and swimming. Her favorite part about playing water polo?

“I love my team,” she said. “That’s definitely my favorite part. I guess I like being in the water, too, because we don’t sweat.”

Less sweat for Chaney having Baldoni back there, for sure. The CdM coach remembers when he played on the UC Santa Barbara men’s team that won the NCAA championship in 1979. Craig Wilson, who went on to play for the United States’ silver medal-winning Olympics teams of 1984 and ’88, was the Gauchos’ goalie that year.

“I tried to explain it to the girls how important it is to have a good goalie,” Chaney said. “You shouldn’t even turn to look at the shot; you should just take off on the counterattack. When you’re on defense, you can take chances, you can play up in the lanes a little more because maybe if your guy beats you, you know [the goalie] will be back helping you to block the shot.

“It’s such a luxury to have a goalie like her.”

Baldoni, meanwhile, said she’s just happy to be a part of the team.

“I think every little practice counts,” she said of CdM’s seven-game winning streak heading into today’s game against Foothill at Beckman High. “From where we were during the summer to now, we’re a totally different team. We’ve come a long way, but we still have to keep working hard if we want to keep winning.”

Expect her to keep up her end of that bargain.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.