Bishop’s School girls win fifth straight CIF water polo championship

Like her older sister a year earlier, Bishop’s School senior Julia Bonaguidi completed a four-year championship sweep in her senior year at the La Jolla campus.

In all, the top-seeded Knights claimed their fifth consecutive girls water polo crown and 12th in 13 years with a 19-6 romp over No. 2 seed Helix in the CIF San Diego Section Open Division title game Feb. 18 at the Coggan Family Aquatic Complex in La Jolla.

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Photo gallery: See how Bishop’s claimed its fifth consecutive Open Division girls water polo championship

“It feels great,” said Bonaguidi, who competed with the U.S. Senior National Team in Australia a month ago. “I did this with people I love, people who it seems like I’ve been with forever in this program.”

Bonaguidi scored seven goals in this year’s CIF championship game. The previous three seasons, she teamed at Bishop’s with her older sister, Alex, who currently is at USC.

Bishop’s (20-8) scored the first three goals in the opening 2:36, including two by Sofia Holman, and proceeded to build a 10-5 halftime lead.

Bonaguidi, a future player at UC Berkeley, scored five times in the first half, including a penalty shot with 28 seconds left.

In the third quarter, Bishop’s recorded all seven goals.

Holman finished with five goals, while Lucille Proul and Lisbon Zeigler added two each.

The Knights ended up outscoring their three playoff foes 51-15 overall after beating Rancho Bernardo 19-4 and El Camino 13-5.

The title match just missed being between perennial La Jolla rivals Bishop’s and La Jolla High School, as La Jolla defeated Clairemont 8-7 in double overtime in the quarterfinal round before falling to Helix 11-10 in the semifinals.

Next up are the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs.

Bishop’s is seeded No. 4 in Division I and will host No. 5 Laguna Beach in the first round Tuesday, Feb. 21.

La Jolla, seeded No. 5 in Division II, opens at No. 4 JSerra Catholic of San Juan Capistrano the same day. Both games will begin at 5 p.m.

The regional semifinals will be Thursday, Feb. 23, and the finals Saturday, Feb. 25.

Girls soccer

The second-seeded La Jolla High School girls soccer team defeated Valley Center 4-1 in the San Diego Section Division III playoffs Feb. 17.

The Vikings will take on Monte Vista at home in the semifinals at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21. A victory would put them in the division championship game at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, at Bonita Vista High School in Chula Vista against the winner of the other semifinal match between San Diego High and Oceanside.

Girls basketball

La Jolla Country Day School seniors Breya Cunningham (left) and Jada Williams will play for the U.S. team in the Women’s Nike Hoop Summit on Saturday, April 8, in Portland, Ore.

(Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Already named to play for the West team in the McDonald’s All-American Games in March, La Jolla Country Day School’s Breya Cunningham and Jada Williams have been tabbed to represent the United States in the inaugural Women’s Nike Hoop Summit.

Cunningham and Williams are part of a 13-member U.S. team that will play a team of top international players.

The World Team roster will draw players from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania.

The women’s game will be played Saturday, April 8, in Portland, Ore.

Williams and Cunningham also will play in the girls McDonald’s All-American Game on Tuesday, March 28, in Houston.

The two were members of the 2021 U16 USA National Team that won gold at the FIBA Americas Championships in Leon, Mexico.

They also were on the 2022 U18 National Team that took gold in the Americas Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

— La Jolla Light staff and San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer John Maffei contributed to this report. ◆