Coyotes ousted from water polo playoffs

Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune

Madera’s Emily Wattenbarger reaches back to fire a shot for one of her team-high four goals in Thursday’s quarterfinal playoff loss to Frontier.

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The Madera Coyotes girls water polo team was outscored 10-6 in the second half of Thursday’s Central Section Div. III quarterfinal match against Frontier out of Bakersfield in a 15-11 loss at the McAlister Aquatics Complex.

The third-seeded Coyotes repeatedly tried to pull away from the sixth-seeded Titans in the second half, but the Titans continued to match Madera’s scores, and then pulled away with a five-goal run.

The Titans seemed to have found a hole in Madera’s game by leaking out their best player to score in the second half and by pressuring the Madera players once then reached mid-pool to keep the offense stagnant.