Lacrosse

A cross-country move to Newport Beach in 2007 turned out to be a life-changing experience for Daria Gordeeva-Grinkova. Before, she seemed destined to become a figure skater, following in the footsteps of her renowned parents, Katia Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkova. But when Daria came from Connecticut to Newport Beach two weeks before her freshman year at Sage Hill School, she hung up the skates and took up lacrosse. The life of a competitive ice skater is behind her. Daria’s life has changed.

Santa Margarita 15, Newport Harbor 2 NEWPORT BEACH — Ritter Hagadorn and Kole Escher scored for the Sailors in their season opener Saturday at Davidson Field. Riley Peterson (four face-offs won, six groundballs), Escher (five groundballs) and Brandon Rausch (three groundballs) also contributed for Newport Harbor. The Sailors play host to JSerra Wednesday at 5 p.m.

BOYS' LACROSSE Corona del Mar 10, Marin Catholic 4 SAN FRANCISCO - Senior goalie Michael Ortlieb made 13 saves, helping the Sea Kings, ranked fifth in the state by laxpower.com, win their second game at the Jerry Langkammer Invitational at St. Ignatius Prep on Friday. CdM improved to 13-0 on the season. Jack Ortlieb finished with three goals and Michael Keasey had three assists. The Sea Kings close out tournament play Saturday with a game against San Jose Bellarmine Prep.

DANA POINT - The Corona del Mar High boys' lacrosse team stayed perfect and it pulled off the feat in a game it failed to win the last two times. The contest is the biggest one in Orange County every year. In their third trip to the U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section South Division finale in four years, the Sea Kings can call themselves champions. Top-seeded CdM grabbed the lead first and never trailed. The Sea Kings finished their opponent this time, beating third-seeded San Clemente, 9-6, at Dana Hills High on Wednesday night.

CORONA DEL MAR - The weather was cool, even misty at times late Saturday afternoon at Corona del Mar High. This did not matter to the members of the CdM girls' lacrosse team, who wore eye black under their eyes. It's not something the Sea Kings normally do, but then again it's not every day they play rival Newport Harbor in the Battle of the Bay. "It's a Harbor special," CdM junior Molly Rovzar said of the eye black. By the end of the game, the Sea Kings had shown just how special their team is this season.

G.W. Mix, a Newport Coast resident, is definitely looking forward to Saturday. That’s when his team, the Los Angeles Riptide, plays in the New Balance Zip Major League Lacrosse semifinals against the Denver Outlaws. Mix, who also heads up a local youth program, the Newport Beach Dawgs, is the general manager of the Riptide. They’ll be playing at Harvard Stadium in Boston. The winner will play in the championship game the next day. Sunday’s championship game will air live on ESPN2.

CORONA DEL MAR - "This one's for Moose. " So read the back of the T-shirts worn by the Corona del Mar High boys' lacrosse team, coaches and fans Saturday. The Sea Kings didn't really need extra motivation for the Battle of the Bay game against rival Newport Harbor, but "Moose" provided some. Warren "Moose" Mix is the father of CdM Coach G.W. Mix. In recent days "Moose" has been ill, in critical condition at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. G.W. Mix went to Maryland for more than a week to be with his father and his family, only getting back into Orange County late Friday night.

"Where did they play, out on the fields with the trees?" someone asked, wanting to know about how Native Americans played lacrosse in its early years. Brian Patterson slightly smiled before answering, "They did play out on the fields. They played among the trees. There was no out of bounds. " The answer intrigued the group of Newport Harbor High boys' lacrosse players and their families. Patterson was at the school's gym Monday night to answer questions and provide history of lacrosse.

Sage Hill School will be adding boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams for the upcoming spring season, Athletic Director John Poffenberger said Tuesday. The teams will be official, CIF-sanctioned teams rather than club teams. The CIF Southern Section sanctioned lacrosse as a sport in 2006. “More and more students are getting exposed to [lacrosse] at a younger age,” Poffenberger said. “From some of the research I’ve done, it’s one of the fastest growing sports in Orange County.

Newport Beach high school club teams ask school district for recognition as a CIF sport.It's a heady time for lacrosse in Newport Beach, even with spring still a few months away. Both public high schools in town have started lacrosse clubs over the last few years, with participation by both boys and girls on the rise. A local youth league offers sticks and balls to hundreds of elementary and middle-school students. UC Irvine is contributing coaches. In the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, however, lacrosse is still missing one thing: status as an official sport.

Mark Todd is coming back to Corona del Mar High yet again, not to lead the Sea Kings, but to coach against them. Todd has returned to CdM a handful of times since leaving the school five years ago. He's in his fourth season in charge of Newport Harbor, CdM's Back Bay rival. The schools have played five times since Todd moved across the bay. The sixth meeting is Tuesday, when Todd guides the No. 15-seeded Sailors (8-8) to his former stomping ground to open the U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section South Division playoffs against No. 2 CdM (13-1)

Several parents from Newport Beach have been telling me about the increasing popularity of lacrosse in Orange County and Southern California. There have been emails and phone calls. But we get these a lot about sports that aren't the traditionally popular ones, like football, basketball and baseball. Finally it took a bump to my car for me to get the picture. A wise person once told me sometimes it does take a jolt in order to bring change and/or improvement. Elizabeth Bader, whose son Nathan Chaness plays boys' lacrosse at Newport Harbor High, accidentally (or at least I hope it was an accident)

What a game! What a game! That might be a simple way to describe what took place Wednesday night at Davidson Field, where Newport Harbor High and Marina battled in a wild and crazy boys' lacrosse game. But Sailors Coach Mark Todd probably put it best when talking about the way his guys took a much-needed 13-11 victory over the Vikings, who featured former Tars assistant Ryan Abatte as their head coach. "A perfect storm for disaster," Todd said before addressing his victorious Sailors in a post-game meeting.

Early in the season, adversity struck the Newport Harbor High boys' lacrosse team. During the first five games, the Sailors lost a starter to injury each contest, Coach Mark Todd said. There were some broken collarbones to some players, Todd said, as well as a broken hand to talented freshman midfielder Chandler Pierce, who was lost for the season. It all became challenging for the Sailors, who stumbled early in the Sunset League season as well, as some players recovered from injury and others left for spring-break trips.

IRVINE - The day after many of the players on the Corona del Mar High girls' lacrosse team returned from the three-day Stagecoach Country Music Festival, they had a huge Pacific Coast League game against Beckman. The festival was much more fun for the Sea Kings than the game at the Patriots' field Monday. CdM stayed competitive for most of the contest, but at the end the goals dried up, just like the festival grounds in the desert in Indio. The resulting 13-9 Beckman victory means that CdM is most likely denied its first outright league title in program history.

As coach of the Corona del Mar High boys' lacrosse program, G.W. Mix doesn't get to see his two sons play in college often. He's too busy coaching, while Ryan Mix and Casey Mix are away competing. Ryan plays for the University of Notre Dame and Casey for UC Santa Barbara. Mix's boys are coming home this week and he will get to see them play in person. Dad came up with a great idea: create a college lacrosse exhibition in Orange County and invite the teams his sons play on. The event, which looks to promote lacrosse in California, took several years to pull off. The schedules worked out for all parties involved.

GIRLS' LACROSSE Newport Harbor 6, Downey 4 Alex Palmer scored three goals to lead the Sailors to their season-opening win Tuesday. Rylie Siegfried added two goals for Newport Harbor(1-0), which plays host to Laguna Hills on Thursday. — BOYS' TENNIS Corona del Mar 14, Peninsula 4 PALOS VERDES — Bjorn Hoffmann, Ryan Andrews and Josh Kliger swept in singles for the Sea Kings in Tuesday's nonleague match on the road. Carson Williams and Johnny Rone also swept at No. 1 doubles for CdM (2-0)

The Corona del Mar High girls' lacrosse and girls' soccer teams are working together for a fundraiser and a special screening of the documentary, "Girl Rising," Monday night at the Little Theater at Corona del Mar High School. Kenya Keys, http://www.kenyakeys.org , is an organization that provides educational opportunities where there are none. The project uses 100% of donations to go to the cause, the website says. "Girl Rising," is a documentary that chronicles the lives of nine girls who battle great adversity to gain education.

Corona del Mar High junior Brett Olson made the All-Pacific Coast League first team in baseball. Olson, a pitcher and first baseman, is one of two CdM players earning all-league praise. The other is senior second baseman Tyler Maloney, a second-team selection. The Sea Kings finished 9-17, 4-11 in league, last place. Olson went 3-2 with a 1.66 earned-run average. He struck out 24 in 33 2/3 innings and threw one complete game. Olson hit .329 with 13 runs batted in, eight doubles and one triple.

Corona del Mar High senior attacker Jack Ortlieb was one of the top 50 high school boys' lacrosse players on the West Coast that played in the Adrenaline All-American Game at Orange Coast College on Saturday. Ortlieb, who's bound for Holy Cross, scored two goals and assisted on two goals, helping the South defeat the North, 20-12. "Saturday's game went really well," said Ortlieb, who played in his third straight game since injuring his hamstring on April 20. "I played half the game.