San Juan Preps Roundup: JSerra Girls Water Polo Wins First CIF-SS Title; SMES Girls Hoops, JSerra Boys Soccer Advance to Finals

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JSerra Girls Water Polo Rolls to First CIF-SS Championship

To classify JSerra girls water polo’s path through the CIF-SS playoffs as utterly dominant might be understating it.

The No. 1 seed Lions outscored their five opponents in the Division 3 playoffs by a 70-goal margin, including a 13-5 win over Sunny Hills on Saturday, Feb. 18, at Woollett Aquatic Center in Irvine to capture the program’s first CIF-SS championship.

Zoe Gabriel, a junior, and freshmen Sloan Paulson and Sayre Duran each scored three goals. Kamryn McCord, Sydney Chapman and Sophia Balkhi also scored goals for JSerra.

JSerra qualified for the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs, where the Lions opened the Division II bracket with an 8-5 win over La Jolla on Tuesday, Feb. 21. JSerra traveled to El Camino of Oceanside for the semifinals on Thursday, Feb. 23, but results were not available at press time.

JSerra lost in the CIF-SS Division 5 Final last season, and this girls run follows a nearly transcendent boys run in the fall, when the Lions advanced to the CIF-SS Open Division title game and won the CIF SoCal Regional Division I championship.

St. Margaret’s Girls Basketball Advances to First CIF-SS Title Game

St. Margaret’s girls basketball continued to showcase its top-seed chops to make program history last Saturday, Feb. 18.

The No. 1 seed Tartans held off a late push from host South Hills of West Covina, 55-39, in a Division 5AA semifinal to advance to the program’s first CIF-SS championship game.

St. Margaret’s will take on Gahr in the Division 5AA Final on Saturday, Feb. 25, at 6 p.m. at Edison High School in Huntington Beach. Tickets can only be purchased online at gofan.co. General admission is $15, and students with ID and children 5-13 years old are $5.

In the semifinals, St. Margaret’s led by three at halftime, 23-20, and pushed out to a 14-point lead in the third quarter on three consecutive 3-pointers from Lila Wohlgemuth. Wohlgemuth sank five 3-pointers to score 15 points.

South Hills cut the deficit to five points with just over four minutes remaining, but St. Margaret’s got another Wohlgemuth 3-pointer to stop the Huskies momentum and ride out the win.

Harper Gideons led St. Margaret’s with 19 points.

JSerra Boys Soccer Breaks Through Late to Advance to Second Straight Division 1 Title Game

Gavin Allageart scored his second goal of the game with less than two minutes to play in top-seeded JSerra’s Division 1 semifinal at Montclair High School to send the Lions back to the CIF-SS Final with a chance at redemption.

No. 1 seed JSerra defeated Montclair, 3-2, in the semifinal and will take on Sunny Hills in the Division 1 Final on Saturday, Feb. 25, at 4 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Long Beach. Tickets can only be purchased online at gofan.co.

It is JSerra’s third trip to the CIF-SS championship game and second consecutive appearance after a 2-1 loss to Trinity League rival Servite in the 2022 Division 1 Final. The Lions won the Division 1 title in 2010.