Led by Madison Halliburton, the Clark girls water polo team earned their first trip to the state tournament by hanging on to defeat Harlan, 14-13, Saturday in the Class 6A regional final at Southwest ISD Aquatic Center.
In the boys' regional final, Boerne Champion cruised to its fifth straight trip to the state tournament by running away from Harlan 21-4.
Halliburton, a freshman, scored a team high seven goals, including the game winner, in helping Clark (26-3) punch its ticket to state final four, which starts Friday with match semifinals at Josh Davis Natatorium.
Halliburton is excited she will have a chance to compete for a state title in her first year of varsity competition.
"It's incredible," Halliburton said. "We really worked hard to get to this moment. We deserve this. We worked every morning for the last month and a half to get to this moment, so that's awesome."
Halliburton got off to a quick start, scoring five of her seven goals in the first half. The freshman center notched her biggest goal late in the fourth quarter, the game winner with 2:35 left in the match on an assist from Haley Harris.
Halliburton's decisive goal came at a critical juncture for Clark, which led 13-11 after junior center Alicia Maldonado put a drop shot into the corner of the net with 6:30 remaining. Harlan would score two goals in a span of 39 seconds from Ziva Rose and Paige Kight to tie the match at 13-13, with 5:34 left.
After Halliburton's go ahead score, the Clark defense held on in the final seconds, preventing Harlan from getting a shot off as the clock expired.
"It feels great to be going to the state tournament," Clark coach Jeffrey Segrest said. "So, to finally make that leap to get to the next level is a weight off my back, it's something to look forward to."
Clark is going to the state tournament despite only have three seniors on its roster. Segrest said cohesiveness is one of the reasons why Clark is advancing to the state semifinals, anchored by the team's three main players – Halliburton, Maldonado and sophomore Colette Dreher, the team's lockdown defender.
"Relationship building and then for our big three (Halliburton, Maldonado and Dreher), they worked all year round putting in that extra effort," Segrest said. "This year there was a lot of buy in to the structure of the program and what we were trying to build here."
Maldonado, Clark's leading scorer this season, said going to the state tournament is something she has looked forward to.
"Honestly, it's surreal," Maldonado said. "We've dreamed about this for forever now and I'm so proud of us, it's so crazy."
Harlan ended its season at 29-6, with Kight leading the way with four goals.
Champion (26-4) got off to a hot start against Harlan (27-8) in the boys' final, going up 5-0 in the first 6:51 of the match. After taking a 9-3 halftime lead, Champion would put the clamps on Harlan, outscoring Harlan 12-1 in the second half.
The senior core of Julius Hoxhaj and E.J. Altermatt led Champion, with Hoxhaj scoring six goals and Altermatt adding five scores.
After coming up short in its previous trips to the state tournament, which included two runners up and third place finishes, Champion coach Scott Slay said defense will be the key for his squad if they are to hoist their first ever state title trophy.
"I think this is probably the best crew of kids we've had defensively," Slay said. "Just as far as team defensive concepts, they're very solid in that aspect, so we are going to take our defense to the semifinal game at state and see how it plays out."
Hoxhaj said it's amazing that Champion is headed back to state for the fifth consecutive time.
"I think we worked really hard as a team in practice," Hoxhaj said. "We really connected throughout all practices. So, I think we really earned this one and we're hoping to do well in state."
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There’s more to San Antonio with the Express-News. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Clark girls, Boerne Champion boys win region, advance to state in water polo.