“We’ve had to come from behind, but this game we wanted to come out really tough and just keep playing hard,” said junior set player Leslee Kaczmarek, who scored a goal and drew three Foothill exclusions. “One of our priorities in practice is defense. That’s the focus in most of our games; it’s defense first and offense second.”
The Sea Kings (13-5) kept Foothill (13-5) scoreless in the second half to win their eighth straight game. CdM hasn’t given up a goal in the second half of its last three games, which also includes a Pacific Coast League contest against Laguna Hills on Wednesday and the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions title game against rival Newport Harbor on Jan. 12.
In fact, since giving up a second-half goal to Dos Pueblos in a TOC semifinal, the Sea Kings have gone more than 53 minutes without allowing another one after the halftime break. So why have they been so successful after the intermission?
“They just tough it up,” CdM Coach Aaron Chaney said. “We played good five-on-six defense in the second half.”
Kennedy scored the go-ahead goal in the third quarter for CdM, ranked No. 2 in the CIF Southern Section Division I coaches’ poll. Kennedy spun around her defender before emerging from under water and scoring with her left hand. She then scored her game-high third and final goal with 6:14 left in the fourth quarter, on the power play and assisted by Heather Van Hiel.
CdM proved relentless on defense, and with some intelligence on offense, showed Saturday the Sea Kings just could vault into the top spot in the rankings.
No. 3-ranked Foothill boasts an impressive center and set defender in USC-bound senior Emily Klug. But Kennedy said the Sea Kings countered that with some strategy of their own. It involved having both Kennedy and Kaczmarek in the game at the same time, trading off possessions at set.
