Half Moon Bay, Hillsdale girls' water polo teams tied atop Ocean Division standings

Instead, the Cougars will have to be content moving into a first-place tie in the standings after handing Hillsdale its first Ocean Division loss of the season, 11-3, Wednesday afternoon in San Mateo.

“I was a little nervous,” Hilvert said. “I was glad we came out with some fire.”

While the win over Hillsdale pulls HMB (5-1) into a tie with the Knights (5-1) atop the Ocean standings, make no mistake: Half Moon Bay is now the team to beat. The Cougars had a strong defensive effort, shutting out the Knights in the first two quarters.

When the Cougars went on offense, they were simply too much for the Knights to handle — especially senior hole set Jess Palmer-Sammons, who was nearly unguardable when she got the ball 2 meters from the Hillsdale goal.

Palmer-Sammons simply overpowered any defender who attempted to slow her down and finished the match with a game-high five goals.

So it was ironic that Palmer-Sammons opened the scoring with a goal from a shot from nearly midpool off a restart. The rest of her goals, however, were quintessential hole-set strikes.

Her backhand goal put the Cougars up 3-0 in the first quarter and she made it 4-0 early in the second when she received a pass in the set and, with a defender draped over her back, literally shrugged the defender off, turned and fired home her third goal of the half.

“[Palmer-Sammons] has played club the last couple of years and has just blossomed,” Hilvert said.

Kaylani Guevara added three goals and three assists for the Cougars, which also got a pair of goals and assists from Kay Hildebrand as well.

Hillsdale, for its part, tried to play HMB aggressively, picking up its defense at midpool and pressuring the ball everywhere.

The pressure worked as the Knights came up with a number of steals and forced several turnovers.

Unfortunately for the Knights, it didn’t translate into offense. Which is odd, because Hillsdale has shown it can fill up the net, having posted a 12-11 win over Terra Nova and a 12-10 overtime victory over San Mateo.

“Offense has been an issue the last two games,” said Hillsdale head coach Shannon Taliaferro. “We didn’t come out with the intensity we were looking for. I was pleased to see them come out harder in the second half.”

Hillsdale, which managed just six shots on goal in the first quarters, upped its shooting over the final two quarters, including five in the fourth period alone.

But Phoebe Grant, who was called up from the JV team to fill in for a sick starter, was unflappable in goal. Making her first varsity league appearance, Grant allowed just three goals while making 13 stops.

“She was great,” Hilvert said of Grant.

Despite being shut out in the first half, Hillsdale found itself only trailing 4-0.

But any hopes of a strong second-half comeback were thwarted when HMB scored four unanswered goals to start the third period for an 8-0 advantage. Hope Loy finally got the Knights on the scoreboard with just over a minute left in the third quarter. Following a steal at midpool, Loy and Ona Manero had a 2-on-1 break. Loy, however, kept the ball and finally slipped it past Grant on the short side.

“She was mad she gave up that first goal,” Hilvert said of her goaltender. “I like that.”

In the fourth quarter, Hillsdale made one last push to get back in the game. When Aisling Edge converted a pass from Skylar Barcklay and Amanda Jarrett scored off an assist from Edge, the Knights were down 8-3 and gaining confidence with half the period left to play.

There would be no late HMB collapse, however, with Palmer-Sammons, Guevara and Hildebrand rounding out the scoring for the Cougars.

While disappointed with the loss, Hillsdale’s Taliaferro was looking forward to the league-ending rematch with the Cougars.

“It will just make the end of the season that much more fun,” Taliaferro said.