Heritage at home, Paloma on road in CIF water polo playoffs

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Heritage High will take a lot of momentum into the girls water polo postseason starting Tuesday when the Patriots play host to Torrance in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 5 playoffs.

The Patriots have won seven consecutive games, including a sweep of the competition in the Sunbelt League Tournament last week to claim the league championship. They will take a 15-8 overall record into Tuesday’s 5 p.m. game against Torrance, which is 11-10 and finished third in the Pioneer League.

In the last two rounds of the league tournament, Heritage won by scores of 14-4 and 15-3. Since finishing the non-league season with an 8-7 record, the Patriots have been on a roll.

“I believe are chances are high,” said coach Shannon “Lucky” Stephenson. “We had practice today in preparation for this upcoming week. With our ladies’ drive and fortitude, they’re going to do well. The job isn’t done!”

Heritage has a strong team featuring Gracie Ledesma, who scored 9 goals in the league championship game; Presleee Hart, who had 5 assists; and goalkeeper Alana O’Neal, who blocked 15 shots.

When the playoff pairings were first announced on Friday, the CIF had Heritage placed in Division 3 against a different opponent. After complaints were made by several athletic directors about various match-ups, the pairings were redrawn and posted on Saturday. Among other changes, Heritage was moved down to Division 5.

In a statement released on Saturday, the CIF-SS office had this to say about the redrawn brackets:

"The data used to feed the computer rankings system included an algorithm that referenced National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Water Polo rules on scoring forfeited games. That rule states water polo forfeits result in a 5-0 score for the team receiving the forfeit win. To avoid skewing the resulting outcome, those games were rated at “0” for both teams by the water polo department when inputting the scores into that system. Unfortunately, that system did not render a power ranking that recognized that weighted designation.

"Thus, 5-0 wins by certain schools resulted in the system interpreting those to be 5-0 wins in the pool. Like dominoes, once those scores populated as such, they created a situation that caused all following divisions to be incorrect. Once alerted to that fact, the water polo department immediately set upon remedying that mistake."

Stephenson appreciated the corrections that were made.

“We were in Division 3, but a few teams we lost to were in Division 4,” Stephenson said. “This is the division we should’ve started in, so I’m glad they made the corrections.”

Another Menifee team that made the playoffs is Paloma Valley, which also had its first-round opponent changed. The Wildcats will play at Ayala in a Division 4 game Tuesday at 5 p.m.

Paloma Valley will be trying to bounce back from two consecutive losses in the final two rounds of the Ivy League Tournament. The Wildcats are 14-12 overall.

“I feel like our team is in a good place for the beginning of CIF,” said coach Joe Ellett. “We have a strong positive mindset and will compete hard for the win. The girls are excited and so am I.”