The Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week scored a key goal from set with just under three minutes to go in the game, pulling the Sailors within a goal. Then, in the second overtime period, it was Morrison’s shot from the perimeter that caromed off the crossbar and to junior Nicolina McCall, who punched in the go-ahead goal in Newport Harbor’s 6-5 win.
A sweet win for Morrison and all of the seniors, who jumped in the water at Irvine High and celebrated after coming back from a three-goal deficit. But Morrison, inserted in the fourth quarter, helped make the difference for the Sailors, who defeated CdM for the fourth time in five meetings this season.
“We’ve played [CdM] so much, and we know each other so well,” she said. “I came in, and I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this is happening. We’re getting murdered, and we’ve killed these girls. I can’t believe it.’ ”
Morrison said she looked at the faces of fellow seniors like team captain Mimi Bury, who fouled out of the game in the third quarter, and Jessica Robinson, Amanda Simons and Elizabeth Wheeler.
“We’ve worked so hard all these years, and we’ve always wanted to do this, but everybody looked so down,” she said. “It kind of fired me up.”
Morrison has been playing club water polo for Newport Water Polo Foundation since the sixth grade. In her first full year on varsity, she has scored 22 goals for the Sailors, who are the top-seeded team in the CIF Southern Section Masters Tournament that beings today.
“She has tremendous athletic ability,” Barnett said. “She throws the ball as hard as any boy. She certainly helped us in the [Division I final]. She stepped up.”
