ROSEVILLE — A pair of wins on Friday, including a 15-12 upset win over third-seeded Miramonte, sent the No. 6 Davis girls into the medal round at the Woodcreek Invitational water polo tournament on Saturday.

The Blue Devils kept up their good play on Saturday, but suffered close loses to a pair of higher-seeded squads to finish fourth at the tourney, which was contested at the Roseville Aquatics Center.

DHS, which opened the tournament by defeating Northgate (11-3), was paced by Heather Johnson’s 16 goals for the weekend. Other Devils with multiple goals were Lauren Owens (eight), Mara Dominguez (seven), Colby Stapleton (six) and Kendall Doten (two), with Kinsey Van Deynze and Alyssa Alvarez adding one each.

“Having Colby Stapleton in the mix just opens things up and makes everyone better,” said Davis coach Doug Wright. “A good example of that was Heather’s seven goals against Miramonte. Colby only scored one goal but drew a lot of attention and someone like Heather, who is a great shooter and a great player, was able to take advantage.”

In their first game on Saturday, the locals fell 9-8 to No. 2 Sacred Heart but played well and even led 8-7 after three quarters. Davis then dropped the third-place game to No. 4 Clovis West, which is always one of the best teams in Northern California. In that game, DHS trailed 9-6 after three periods but outplayed Clovis West in the final quarter.

Wright praised the performance of  junior goalie Mattie Lilliedoll, and added that freshman Katrina Strum (Emerson) played a great second half against Clovis West.

DHS boys water polo

After the Blue Devils finished sixth out of 32 teams at the America’s Finest City tournament in San Diego, one of the program’s best outings ever at the prestigious event, coach Tracy Stapleton said the weekend was a success on all fronts.

“(The finish) is remarkable considering the (strength) of this tournament,” Stapleton told The Enterprise. “And we accomplished everything we wanted to: play some good competition and find out what we need to improve.”

In winning three of its five games, DHS used a balanced scoring attack that was paced by Graham Fullerton’s 14 goals.

The senior was at his best in the Devils’ wins as his four goals helped the locals knock off Los Altos (Hacienda Heights), 13-11, and Fullerton’s five tallies led them past Carlsbad, 11-9.

Garret Fisk and Conrad McCarthy added hat tricks against Los Altos and had three and four goals, respectively, in beating King (Riverside), 14-12. Fullerton added a hat trick in that contest, while fellow senior Zac Anderson scored twice and Alex Borowsky, Tyler Ujifusa and Bradley Nicholson each tallied once.

Other local goals during the weekend came from Jonathan Desideri, in an 11-4 loss to Los Oso (Ranco Cucamonga), and Cameron Wright, who had two in a 9-4 loss to Buchanan in the fifth-place game.

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