Hill, Snyder pace East to victory

Porterville’s Kyla Hill swears she didn’t know there was an award for anyone named the MVP of the girls’ East-West All-Star Water Polo Game.

“I didn’t even know about it,” she said.

Still, Hill will gladly accept the $125 check toward a scholarship of her choice after scoring a game-high seven goals to help the East squad rout the West, 20-6, Saturday at Golden West High School.

Hill and EYL MVP Panthers teammate Coriann Snyder proved a nightmare for the WYL’s elite to handle.

Snyder scored six more goals to help avenge, in part, the Panthers’ loss to El Diamante in the Division II championship game. More than half of the West squad was from El Diamante.

“It felt so good,” Hill said of handily beating the Miners girls.

All thanks to some help from a few enemies.

The Panthers, who also included Jenna Morris and goalie Raven Kapphahn, joined forces with Monache’s trio of Amanda Kaye, Ally Bernard and goalie Mary Imbach. Marauders coach Ryan Atchley even teamed with Porterville’s Richard Taylor to coach from the sidelines.

“I always knew that if you put Monache and Porterville girls together, we’d be unstoppable,” Hill said. “It was a little hard at first because we don’t know each other well and where we like to play.”

But none of the girls had to play outside of their natural positions, though Imbach played several minutes in the field away from her usual cage setting, and the girls quickly jelled.

Kaye scored the first goal then Snyder took over with four straight goals from the hole.

Hill scored on a putback off her own miss and the lead was suddenly 7-1.

“We were talking afterwards like, ‘Dang, if this was our team, we’d never lose,’” said Hill, who hopes to follow Snyder to Long Beach State where she’ll try out for the women’s polo team.

Bernard showed off her defensive prowess with several steals. The senior also scored twice, including once off a penalty shot late in the first half.

Porterville’s Jenna Morris scored two goals as well. One of those was assisted by Tulare Union’s Christa Cardoza, who added two scores of her own.

“I thought the Porterville and Monache girls both played great,” Taylor said.

El Diamante star Alyson Huber led the West with three goals.