Girls' water polo: Indio's dream season continues with breathtaking semifinal win
After going on a wild hugging spree with any player, parent, administrator or even stranger that crossed his path, victorious Indio girls' water polo head coach Marcos Perez knew what was about to happen next.
His Rajah players had him surrounded on the deck and he was about to get thrown into the pool. He held them off long enough to astutely toss his cell phone to a friend, and then gleefully accepted the shove as he did a celebratory flip.
The girls jumped in after him and they took one last team photo in the pool where they had just made history.
The Rajahs defeated Anaheim in a breathtaking 14-13 semifinal Wednesday in front of a loud home crowd and are going to the CIF-SS Division 6 championship game for the first time in school history. Heck, last year was the first time they even made the playoffs.
"I am so proud of these girls, you can't believe it," an emotional Perez said after the win. "A lot of these girls have only been playing water polo for two or three years. They have picked it up so fast, so dedicated, morning practices, lifting weights, watching college teams play on the weekends. They love the game and they love each other. This is really special."
In what was a tense game from start to finish with neither team leading by more than three goals, it was senior Sienna Rodriguez who rose up and fired one in the upper right corner to break a 13-13 tie with 40 seconds left. The Rajahs then had to hold on as sophomore goalie Alyssa Guenther made two big stops to seal the win and touch off a wild celebration.
"I was off a little on my shots earlier and got a lot of feedback from Marcos to adjust this, adjust that," Rodriguez said about her game-winner. "Once I stepped out for that shot and seeing it go in, honestly I just felt so happy. My first thought was 'Where's my girls? Let's finish this.'"
The win puts Indio, ranked fifth, into the Division 6 final on Saturday where they will face No. 1 seed El Modena. El Modena defeated La Quinta 13-8 on Wednesday, preventing an all-desert final. The championship game will take place at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut.
The 2024 Rajahs will be the eighth team from the desert to play for a CIF-SS water polo title and first since Rancho Mirage in 2020. Desert teams are 3-4 in the previous seven games with the last desert team to win a CIF-SS title being the 2019 La Quinta Blackhawks.
"It's kind of wild because we've been down in three of our four CIF games and, of course, every coach says never give up, but these girls truly never give up," Perez said.
The Rajahs trailed by four in their opening-round playoff game and by six in the quarterfinal, rallying back both times.
Wednesday's game also required some late heroics. Indio trailed 13-11 with 2:30 to go in the game. First it was Mia Buelna finding the back of the net for her sixth goal of the game to make the score 13-12. Next it was Jennifer Lopez firing one in to tie the game with 1:39 left on the clock. After a great stop by Guenther in the net on the next Anaheim possession, it was Rodriguez's turn to connect on the game-winner.
The never-say-die Rajahs scored the final three goals of the game and had to survive one final point-blank shot by the visitors.
"It was stressful obviously," said Guenther, the Rajahs' goalkeeper, of holding Anaheim scoreless in the final three minutes of the game. "If I didn't stop any one of those shots, we'd probably be in overtime. It was stressful, but I also liked it. When I blocked that last one, I was so happy."
To go with Buelna's six goals, Rodriguez had five and Lopez added three.
"I'm just so excited and I'm so glad I'm able to do this with my team," Buelna said after tons of hugs, high-fives and selfies with family and friends. "We've learned from the past few games when we were down. Our coaches taught us we need to believe in each other and keep it up."
As for Saturday's championship game, the Rajahs will enter it as an underdog, but up and down the lineup they have a "Why not us?" mentality.
"I can't even comprehend what it's going to feel like. Never been there before obviously, so it's going to be incredible, one of those feelings you've never felt before," Rodriguez said. "But the connection and the bond that we have keeps us confident in each other. OK, we get behind, that's OK. I got J. Lo's back. I got Mia's back. We just have that bond with each other. Even when we're down, we pull each other back up. That's what it's going take to win on Saturday."
Desert girls' water polo teams in CIF-SS finals
2024: Indio vs. EL Modena, Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College
2020: La Salle 16, Rancho Mirage 6 (D7)
2019: La Quinta 11, Dana Hills 8 (D4)
2017: Pasadena Poly 10, Xavier Prep 5 (D5)
2016: Palm Desert 13, Temple City 4 (D5)
2015: Los Altos 8, Palm Desert 7 (D5)
2014: Palm Desert 8, Yorba Linda 6 (D6)
2010: Cerritos 10, La Quinta 9 (D7)
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: CIF-SS water polo: Indio girls make history with tense semifinal win
