Water Polo (Girls) | 2/24/2025 10:59:00 AM

The following is an excerpt from an article in The San Diego Union-Tribune, "Roundup: Bishop's wins seventh straight water polo title; Rancho Bernardo tops Patrick Henry for D1 crown."

To celebrate her senior season, Cathedral Catholic's Hailey Romano has helped lead the Dons to four times the number of wins from last season … and the school's first section championship.

Top-seeded Cathedral pulled away early to prevail in the Division 2 final over Mission Bay 8-2 as Romero scored two of her team's first three goals.

"It's kind of crazy how far we've come," said Romero, who is heading to Santa Clara for college water polo. "It's really a show of our hard work, just everything that we've put into this season, including practice and the weight room."

Francesca McNeil and Lillian La Raia each added two goals for the Dons (24-4), who went 5-20 last season and lost their playoff opener in Division 1.
 

Cathedral blanked the Buccaneers (17-9) in their first final until Audrey Griffin converted with 1:58 left in the third period.

"We came into this game and just tried to take over from the first whistle," Romero said. "Even though there was a big crowd, we just had to stay calm and show what we could do."

Mission Bay goalie Charlotte Rynearson made 10 saves, including seven in the second half, when Cathedral only scored an open-net goal with 21 seconds left.

Cathedral Catholic received the No. 1 seed in the CIF Southern California Regional girls water polo playoffs and will have home games in Tuesday's quarterfinals. The Dons host No. 8 Anaheim (12-14) in the first game of a doubleheader at 3:30 p.m. in a Division III contest.