CdM still striving for more

CORONA DEL MAR — Aaron Chaney looked at the piece of paper, which had scribbled on it the scores of each Corona del Mar High girls’ water polo game this year.

The CdM coach looked for the last time his Sea Kings had given up six goals in a game, like they did in Friday’s regular-season ending 8-6 win over Laguna Beach. He had to scroll up the page quite a bit to find that game, which ended up being a 9-3 loss to Newport Harbor in the Holiday Cup third-place game on Dec. 29.

The result against Laguna Beach was fairly insignificant, because CdM won’t face the Division II Breakers in the playoffs. But now Chaney’s team might know what it needs to work on before the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs begin Thursday.

“We just have to be better on defense,” Chaney said. “We can’t give up six goals going into the playoffs. I don’t want [the team] to drop down right before CIF.”

The Sea Kings (21-6) have still won 16 of their last 17 games headed into the playoffs, although the Breakers were determined to change that. It was Laguna Beach, ranked No. 4 in Division II, that CdM came from behind against in a Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions quarterfinal. In that game, senior Allison Peotter scored twice in the final minutes for the victory.

“We knew they were going to come out really hard and try to get revenge on us,” said junior Victoria Kennedy, who scored three goals Friday and drew three Breakers exclusions. “They almost had us. That game could have gone either way, so we just wanted to put this game away. I think we really did that in the second half.”

CdM, the Pacific Coast League champion and ranked No. 2 in Division I, was up, 5-4, at halftime but began to pull away. In the third quarter, Kennedy scored two power-play goals — both on passes from junior Heather Van Hiel — for a 7-4 advantage.

The Sea Kings, who had gone just one for 12 on the power play in their final two games of the Irvine Southern California Championships, were three for four Friday.

“Those are ones that we have to just put away,” Kennedy said. “We felt accomplished. We had worked on them really hard.”

Junior Elise Molnar added a goal from set with 6:35 left in the game, making it an 8-4 lead. Orange Coast League champion Laguna Beach (19-8) added a goal from Annika Dries and a six-on-five strike from Lexie Ross, but could not get closer.

Van Hiel had a goal, six assists and three steals. Junior Leslee Kaczmarek scored twice, and Peotter had a goal and an assist.

The Sea Kings now wait for the Division I brackets to be released Sunday at 11 a.m.

“The morale is high, but we still know that we shouldn’t have too much confidence going in,” said Kennedy of her junior-dominated team. “We’re a team that’s come from nothing, in a way. We’ve grown so much, and we’ve really become something. But we still want to take it each game, day by day.”

Nonleague

Corona del Mar 8, Laguna Beach 6

SCORE BY QUARTERS

LB – Dries 3, Dodson 1, Ross 1, Holechek 1. Saves – Zuziak 4.

CdM – Kennedy 3, Kaczmarek 2, Van Hiel 1, Peotter 1, Molnar 1. Saves – Baldoni 6.

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