Newport Harbor’s Delaney Knipp earns Sunset League girls’ lacrosse Player of the Year

Newport Harbor High senior girls’ lacrosse midfielder Delaney Knipp earned the Sunset League Player of the Year award after helping the Sailors win the league title.

Knipp is joined on the first team by Sailors sophomore Reese Vickers, sophomore Joelle Rothbard, freshman Olivia Gritzmacher and junior Zoey Palmquist. Corona del Mar senior Joslyn Simaan and junior Caroline Brewster also earned first-team honors, as did Edison senior Annie Cavener and sophomore Ali Bryant.

The Kent State-bound Knipp, who had a team-best 57 goals and added 26 ground balls, helped Newport Harbor (10-9, 4-0 in league) advance to the U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section South Division playoffs. The Sailors beat league rival Los Alamitos 14-7 in the first round before losing 18-8 to Foothill in the second round.

Vickers, an attacker, scored 20 goals in just four games for Newport Harbor. Rothbard, a midfielder, was third on the team with 42 goals and also added a team-best 45 ground balls. Gritzmacher, a midfielder, finished with 16 goals and 19 ground balls and Palmquist, a defender, had 12 goals and 37 ground balls.

Simaan, a midfielder and defender, had 16 goals, a team-best nine assists and 16 ground balls for third-place CdM (6-11, 2-2). Brewster, an attacker, scored a team-best 36 goals and had 13 ground balls. The Sea Kings lost 16-6 to Trabuco Hills in the first round of the playoffs.

Cavener and Bryant, both midfielders, were key players for fourth-place Edison (13-5, 1-3). The Chargers failed to make the postseason.

Second-team honorees included senior Mariana Miller, junior Paris Kozlowski and junior Daphne Chong of Newport Harbor, as well as CdM juniors Paige Wood and Alexa Wood.

Edison had sophomores Taya Riley and Savannah Buyan, as well as freshman Gwen Ontiveros, on the second team.

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