NAPA, Calif. – St. Francis split its Saturday games against Rio Americano and Marin Catholic to finish sixth at the Julian Szmidt Memorial girls' water polo tournament, hosted by Vintage High School and held at Napa Valley College. The Troubadours held off a late Raider comeback to win their opener, 8-7; then fell to the Wildcats by an 11-7 final in the fifth-place game.
SF moves to 16-9 on the season.
Junior goalkeeper Sophia Santsche-Chavez posted 29 saves for the day: 17 against Rio, then 12 against MC. She also had the game-saving steal in the final seconds of the win over the Raiders to prevent overtime, while her net-minding kept the Troubies within range when the SF offense struggled in the third quarter.
Seven different Troubies scored a goal in the win against Rio to start the day. Junior Miranda Ferguson scored her team's first two goals, plus she added three assists and two steals to her day. Addison Hutchcraft scored on the opening possession of the third, the of three goals in less than a minute that propelled SF to a 4-1 lead. Later in the frame, Reese Hughes placed a lob into the back of the net to give the Troubies a 5-1 edge at the break.
St. Francis maintained at least a three-goal lead throughout the third quarter although Rio's offense began to thaw after halftime. Piper Brostrom scored on a second chance in a counterattack at 5:27, Havana Sperber hit an outside shot with 3:25 left, and Abigail Benavidez hit from set to take an 8-4 lead, but that proved to be the last Troubie scoring.
Santsche-Chavez blocked a five-meter penalty shot to start the fourth quarter, one of six total saves in the frame. She also halted two transition attempts and another against a Rio power play, while SF struggled to only two shots. The Raiders cut the deficit to just 8-7, then stole the ball at midtank for an opportunity to equalize. But Santsche-Chavez pounced on the Rio offense, collecting a steal with just eight seconds left. This allowed the Troubies to kill the final seconds and prevent what would otherwise have been the second overtime meeting with the Raiders in less than a week.
In the finale against Marin Catholic, Ferguson scored a hat trick while Brock assisted three goals and scored one of her own. However, St. Francis struggled to contain Wildcat senior Claire Cassidy, who scored seven of her team's eight goals in the first half. Cassidy added one more in each of the third and fourth.
Facing a 9-4 deficit, the Troubies shot 0-for-5 in the third but also did not lose any ground as Santsche-Chavez halted four shots in the same span – including one against a two-on-nobody counterattack chance. SF finally regained some offensive footing in the fourth. Benavidez drew a five-meter and hit her own penalty shot on the first possession, Ferguson landed a bomb from seven meters out at 4:23, then Brock assisted Hutchcraft for a goal with 2:42 left. Unfortunately for SF, the Wildcats effectively had an answer for each. Cassidy even responded to Benavidez' goal by doing the same: drawing a five-meter foul and converting the attempt at the five-meter stripe.
Santsche-Chavez raised her season saves total to 318. Water polo stats only date back to 2014 in SF's records on MaxPreps, but she is the first Troubadour to reach the triple-century plateau in that era. In fact, she previously became just the second (after now-assistant coach Kate Watley) to crack 300 in a career.
Marin Catholic, last year's North Coast Section Division II runner-up, improved to 11-9-1 with its win over the Troubadours. Clovis East won the overall tournament title, thanks to a 16-8 win over Granite Bay.
Both St. Francis varsity and JV return to action in a doubleheader at Bella Vista on Monday. Varsity plays first at 6:30, followed by the jayvees at 7:30.
