The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
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Saline wins first-ever tournament in home pool
Hornets down champs from Cincinnati 8-5 in championship game
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 1, 2008
The Saline girls' water polo team earned their first-ever trip to the state tournament last year, but the Hornets still had yet to win the program's first in-season tournament.
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Consider that another goal crossed off the checklist, as Saline built a big lead and held off a late charge from Milford (Ohio) to take the championship of its host Saline Invitational, 8-5.
"It's a great milestone for this team," a soggy-but-happy head coach Brad Silverman said. "To break through and not only win a tournament, but do it in front of all our fans and parents at home makes it that much sweeter."
"It's a good feeling," senior captain Alyssa Hart said afterward. "We're playing more as a team and tuning up the small things. It's nice because we lost a lot of seniors from last year's team, but we're showing that we're capable of stepping up."
For the first three quarters, the Hornets were in near-complete control against the tournament's defending champions from Cincinnati. After falling behind 1-0, the Hornets got goals from Kassia Zalewski and Alli Littlejohn to go up by a goal at the end of the first quarter.
By halftime, the Hornets would stretch the lead to four. Gabby Thornton would score a pair of goals and Littlejohn would finish following a pass from Zalewski with 48 seconds to play before the break for a 5-1 advantage.
In the fina l three minutes of the third period Zalewski would score her second and Kristen Kotlarczyk would fire home from close range to give the Hornets a commanding 7-1 lead entering the fourth quarter.
But the visitors weren't ready to concede, scoring four straight goals to pull within 7-5 with 1:47 to play. With 52 seconds left, a hard shot could have taken Milford within a goal only for goalie Sam Crichton to come up with arguably her best save of the match. Fourteen seconds later, Littlejohn floated a shot just over the Milford goalie to restore the lead to three and seal the tournament championship.
"We defended Milford's counterattack really well," Silverman said. "We knew they had a lot of speed, so that was our primary focus, not to let them get by us. It wasn't just six girls playing man-to-man, it was one good unit."
Just reaching the final was an accomplishment for Saline after surviving a 6-5 thriller over Dexter in the tourney semifinals. The Hornets led 2-1 at halftime, 4-3 entering the fourth, and then extended the edged to 6-3 before the Dreadnaughts scored the game's final two goals to set up a tense finish.
"Even as close as it got, I never felt like we were in danger of losing the game," Silverman said. "The way our defense was playing, the coaches still had a lot of confidence in the girls."
Gabby Thornton scored twice and added an assist with Littlejohn also recording a pair of goals. Kotlarczyk and Zalewski each scored a single goal, while Crichton finished with 20 saves.
Saline's tournament began with a 7-2 drilling of Chelsea. Littlejohn found the net three times, while Hart scored twice and Kotlarczyk and Zalewski added a goal each.
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