A real family affair in SHP’s latest water polo title

The day that Chris Dorst had dreaded all season arrived on Saturday when the Sacred Heart Prep and Menlo-Atherton girls’ water polo teams met in the championship game of the 13th annual Amanda MacDonald Invitational.

“I’m nervous as hell,” Dorst said, and for good reason.

Dorst and his wife, Marybeth, have three daughters. Two, sophomore Becca and freshman Emily, start for Menlo-Atherton. Another, senior Lindsay, starts for SHP. Add to that Gators’ senior Caroline Clark, the Dorst’s cousin, and the Menlo College pool offered much more than a championship water polo match.

This was the first, and likely only, time all four girls would be playing against each other in high school. Clark and Lindsay Dorst are seniors. Unless all four meet in a college match some day, this game was a-once-in-a-lifetime event.

“It was super fun, with the four of us in the pool at the same time,” said Clark. “We play on the same NorCal (club) team (during the summer), but we’ve never played against each other in a regular match.”

The matchup was set after Becca scored the winning goal in a third sudden-death overtime period in the Bears’ 6-5 semifinal win over St. Francis. Sacred Heart Prep, meanwhile, swamped Palo Alto, 12-1.

Becca quickly texted cousin Caroline: “We’re playing you!”

Caroline texted back: “I’m guarding you!”

Sacred Heart Prep (23-1) won the title easily, 11-2, making the Dorst-Clark storyline all the more important, interesting and, at time, humorous.

When Clark was fouled and had a 5-meter penalty shot against Emily, Becca swam over and began needling her cousin.

“The cage is getting smaller,” Dorst said. “And Emily is growing, you know.”

The two draped arms around each other before Clark playfully pushed Dorst away, got serious and fired a shot past cousin Emily. Clark’s third goal made it 8-0. After one more SHP score, Emily took a seat on the M-A bench as her father most likely breathed a sigh of relief.

A short while later, Lindsay departed with 10 saves and the knowledge she hadn’t given up a goal to sister Becca, who had been hounded much of the match by Caroline.

“I wanted to guard her,” Caroline said. “I thought it was fun. I had a good time.”

The decision to match Caroline and Becca came from SHP assistant coach Zizi Clark, Caroline’s sister. She also played water polo at SHP, as did another sister, Christie. Their father, Peter, was in the stands Saturday, too.

SHP and Menlo-Atherton hadn’t met since 2005, when the Bears shocked the heavily favored Gators in the CCS Division II semifinals. Thus, Saturday’s showdown did carry some importance — along with it being the final tuneup before the league and CCS playoffs.

Still, there were no hard feelings between the sisters and cousin despite the often physical play.

“It was never a question of sacrificing our relationship,” Caroline said.

Added Becca: “It was so much fun. Sacred Heart is a great team. The fact we got to play them was amazing . . . It was definitely a great opportunity for me.”

Becca, of course, claimed she got the better of Caroline, who disagreed, of course.

“I was just saving my energy,” Becca said. “We’ve got homecoming tonight.”

As good parents, Marybeth (a former All-American swimmer at Stanford) and Chris (a former All-American water polo goalie at Stanford) each picked a respective rooting section.

SHP coach Jon Burke,meanwhile, was well aware of the family reunion in the pool, but urged his players to look past it.

“I told the girls to remove themselves from all of that,” Burke said. “We haven’t played them in two years and the last time we lost to them. So, we just brought it back to fundamentals . . . I was thoroughly impressed with our defense.”

The Gators allowed only seven goals in their four tourney wins, while scoring 50. Pallavi Menon tallied 14 goals and Clark had 11. Mary Jayne Mordell scored four in the championship match. It was Sacred Heart’s third title this season and third MacDonald crown since 2003.

In addition to SHP and Menlo-Atherton (13-7), Palo Alto (15-9) finished fourth, Menlo (12-12) took fifth, Castilleja (17-7) was sixth and Gunn (6-10) was 10th.

Menlo, the three-time defending CCS champion, has struggled this season while finishing third in the PAL Bay Division (behind M-A and Castilleja). While the Knights did lost to the Bears (6-3) in Friday’s second round of the tournament, they finished 3-1 and topped Castilleja (7-4) and beat defending champion Davis (6-4).

The PAL playoffs open this week when regular-season champ Menlo-Atherton opening Friday at Burlingame (3:15 p.m.) against the winner between Woodside and Aragon. Castilleja and Menlo will face each other in a tough semifinal at 4:30 p.m. The championship match is Saturday at Burlingame at 2 p.m.

The SCVAL tournament will be held at Los Gatos this week with Palo Alto and Gunn participating. Gunn will play Los Gatos on Thursday at 5:40 p.m., followed by Palo Alto against Fremont at 7 p.m. The Los Gatos-Gunn winner will play the Palo Alto-Fremont winner on Friday at 4:20 p.m. The championship game is Saturday at 2 p.m.

Sacred Heart Prep, meanwhile, will open the West Catholic Athletic League playoffs on Friday, either at 1:30 or 3 p.m., at St. Francis. The finals are Saturday at Bellarmine Prep at 5:30 p.m.

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