Water polo teams eyeing title
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com

Winning a championship is always tough. Repeating is even more difficult.

When the Agoura High girls' water polo team begins its quest to defend its CIFSouthern Section Division II title today at home against Ventura, they'll be doing it without one of their best players, senior Casey Flacks.

Flacks, headed to Loyola Marymount in the fall, suffered an injury to her left arm in practice last Friday. On Monday, it was confirmed that the hand was broken and that Flacks will miss the entire postseason.

"Sure, the girls were a little bummed out when they first heard that Casey was out, but they can't dwell on it," Agoura head coach Jason Rosenthal said.

"This is more than a one-girl team. We have many weapons. One of the reasons why we won last year was because we got contributions from every player, not just our top three or four players."

One of the teams looking to knock off AHS is Thousand Oaks, who won a nail-biter at home against Canyon of Anaheim 6-5 on Tuesday in the wild-card round.

The game featured numerous scoreboard malfunctions, as play was stopped three times to fix the clock, including a 10minute delay in the second quarter.

The scoreboard wasn't the only thing not operating early in Tuesday's game, as the TOHS offense couldn't seem to get anything past Canyon goalkeeper Nicole Bulman. The Lancers went two quarters without scoring, and with three minutes left in regulation, trailed 5-3.

The Thousand Oaks offense quickly awakened, however, as Whitney Delgado scored two goals in the next three minutes, including the game-winner with 8 seconds left on the clock.

"I was so focused on finding a way for our team to come back and win," she said. "The adrenaline was pumping, and after the second half started, the fact that the game was really close kind of woke me up."

Head coach Mike Giles breathed a sigh of relief afterward.

"Canyon has great, great players, and they're extremely wellcoached," Giles said. "We couldn't find a way to get past their drop. Fortunately we had Delgado, who proved once again why she's an All-American."

Thousand Oaks plays today at Palos Verdes, the No. 1 seed from the Bay League. Newbury Park, the Marmonte League's No. 4 seed, is at Dos Pueblos, the top seed in the Division II bracket.

Game times are set for 3:15 p.m.