Merced defeats Golden Valley, wins coin toss to secure playoff spot

If it was going to be her last game, Kathryn Elgin was going out with a bang.

Doing most of her damage from the perimeter, the Merced High School star scored seven goals as the Bears’ girls water polo team defeated Golden Valley 9-4 on Thursday night at Merced College.

“I’ve played varsity all four years and we’ve won on senior night all four years,” Elgin said. “I didn’t want to lose on my senior night. It’s kind of a surreal feeling. This was possibly my last game as a Bear, and I was going to leave everything in the pool.”

If the game wasn’t emotional enough, when news of Pitman upsetting Turlock 9-6 made its way around the pool deck there were different reactions from Merced and Golden Valley.

Golden Valley coach Bill Gossett was in the middle of scolding his team for their performance when a parent told them Pitman won. The mood instantly changed as the girls began celebrating. Turlock’s loss meant the Cougars (8-2) had won the CCC title outright.

It’s Golden Valley’s first conference championship since 2007.

“That was crazy,” said Cougars senior Marissa Wyan. “I was really angry. It was a rough way to end the season. It says a lot about our league. We have a lot of teams that are the same as far as skill level. It was quite a relief to hear the news.”

Gossett was overcome with emotion. On one hand, he was still upset with how his girls unraveled against Merced. On the other, he was overjoyed after hearing they still won the conference championship.

“I felt Merced took us out of our game,” Gossett said. “They completely frustrated us. Then we just found out we won the league championship after we played our worst game of the season. It’s exciting. They earned it, but it would have been nice to have played better today.”

Meanwhile, Pitman’s win over Turlock meant the Pride and Merced finished tied for third and the final CCC playoff spot with 6-4 records in conference.

The tie-breaker was a coin flip, which Merced won to extend its season.

“Everything we talked about that we had to do to win this game we did,” said Bears coach Seth Gentry. “We played the best we could and it worked.”

Elgin put on a shooting clinic from all over the pool.

In the first matchup against Golden Valley, the Cougars smothered Elgin with double and triple teams near the cage, forcing other Merced players to shoot from outside.

This time Elgin stayed out on the perimeter and found open shots. She scored three goals in the first half to give the Bears a 3-1 lead at the break.

Merced broke open the game in third quarter as Elgin scored four more times to help extend the lead to 9-2.

“I don’t mind playing out on the perimeter,” Elgin said. “It’s definitely different. I can’t manhandle people out there because you get caught, but playing out the five (meters), I can get up a quick shot when I’m fouled.”

Golden Valley was forced to sit one of its top players, Grace Mello, after she picked up two quick fouls in the first quarter. Mello didn’t play for the rest of the first half.

The Bears concentrated their defense on Wyan and forced other Cougars to try to score from outside, and they struggled to find the cage.

“They played us the way we played Kathryn last time,” said Wyan, who finished with three goals. “They dropped on me and wouldn’t let me touch the ball and left it up to our other shooters. We couldn’t put our shots away today.”

Buhach Colony 4, Atwater 3 in Atwater – Joslyn Campos scored two goals as the Thunder closed the season with a win over its crosstown rival.

Boys

Merced 14, Golden Valley 5 at Merced College – The Bears wrapped up an undefeated run through the CCC as Alec Propes scored five goals. Abraham Santana added four goals and three assists.

Merced (23-4) will likely host a playoff game next week.

Atwater 11, Buhach Colony 7 at Atwater – Connor Norton scored three goals and Bryce Ludwig added two goals and four assists as the Falcons finished 7-3 in the CCC to tie Turlock for second place.

Wyatt Pimentel added two goals and five steals for Atwater. The Falcons and Bulldogs will flip a coin for the second seed out of the CCC on Friday.

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Merced defeats Golden Valley, wins coin toss to secure playoff spot."