The Saline Reporter
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Saline falls to Rats, but confident as playoffs approach
Huron wins 8-2 on Hornet Senior Night; playoffs start Friday
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 8, 2008
An up-and-down regular season for the Saline girls' water polo team might be finishing on one of the "downs," but head coach Brad Silverman says there's still plenty of reason to think his team will rise "up" again in the postseason.
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The Hornets will open East Region-East District tournament play Friday or Saturday at Ann Arbor Pioneer against an opponent still to be determined. A top-four finish — guaranteed by winning at least one game at the tournament — would send Saline to Regionals with a chance to advance to the state tournament (to be held in Saline) for a second consecutive year.
But pending Wednesday night's game against Dexter, Saline will enter the tournament on a slide, having lost matches last week to Ann Arbor Pioneer, Troy, and Ann Arbor Huron to snap what had been an eight-game unbeaten streak.
"We've had a couple of sloppy games lately," said Silverman after the Hornets' 8-2 home loss to Huron Friday. "We know we can play with anyone, we've just got to play more fundamentally sound and pass the ball well."
The Huron loss came on the Hornets' Senior Night, with departing captains Kristen Kotlarczyk and Alyssa Hart honored before the game.
It was Hart who spearheaded the Hornet attack for most of the game and nearly put the home team in front with a shot that bounced off the crossbar with 5:05 left in the first quarter.
But from there it was almost all Rats as the visitors scored three quick goals late in the first quarter to take a 3-0 lead. Saline would hold Huron scoreless for the duration of the second quarter, but could find little room on offense and trailed by three at halftime. Huron would then double their lead with another three-goal barrage in a span of 90 seconds midway through the third quarter.
Alli Littlejohn got Saline on the board with a hard shot with 2:46 to play in the period, and Hart opened the fourth quarter with a long-distance shot to pull the Hornets within four goals at 6-2.
But that was as close as Saline would come as Huron blanked the Hornets the rest of the way and scored two more of their own to squelch any hope of a Saline comeback. Despite the loss, though, Silverman was encouraged by his team's play on one end of the pool.
"We were very happy with how our defense played. Huron's the kind of team that's going to score goals no matter who they're playing," he said. "If we'd been able to get going on offense, that would have slowed them down even more. Offensively, we had too many turnovers."
Creating more movement on offense will be key at Districts, Silverman said. Potential opponents for the all-important first round matchup include Birmingham Groves, Birmingham Seaholm, Grand Blanc, either Troy or Troy Athens, or if the Hornets get especially unlucky with tiebreakers, either Ann Arbor team.
"We're excited," Silverman said. "Whoever we play, it's going to a tough game. It's going to be someone who we've played and had a close game against. We're going to go into it with some confidence."
The loss to Troy came by a 9-6 score with all six Hornet tallies coming from either sophomores of freshmen. Scorers for Saline included Littlejohn with two goals, Bailey Workman with two, and Gabby Thornton with two.
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