The Ellis under-16 girls water polo team placed eighth in the gold-level bracket at the USA Water Polo 2012 Junior Olympics Aug. 2 to 5. The games were held at Stanford University in Palo Alto, College of San Mateo, Bellarmine High School in San Jose and Aptos High School. The Ellis team went 4-4 in the 48-team tournament, which was divided into the upper “platinum” bracket and the lower “gold” bracket after the first two rounds. The Ellis team opened on Thursday, Aug. 2, with a 16-0 loss to fourth-seeded San Diego Shores A. The team then took a 5-4 loss to Trojan Water Polo of Rancho Palos Verdes. Ellis opened gold bracket play on Friday, Aug. 3, with an 11-7 win over Northern Illinois, which was followed by a 14-1 win over Sonora/Oakdale Water Polo (SOAK). The final game of the day, against Chicago Park District, went into overtime after a 4-4 tie at the end of regulation, and then went into a shootout to break the tie. Ellis won the shootout 4-3, with Geraldine Vasquez scoring the winning shot. Ellis opened Saturday, Aug. 4, with a 9-5 win over Stockton and then took an 8-2 loss to Santa Barbara B. Ellis finished the tournament on Sunday, Aug. 5, with an 8-1 loss to American River A in the eighth-place match. Colby Chase was Ellis’ scoring leader with 14 goals for the weekend, including four in the game against Stockton, and Geraldine Vasquez scored eight goals, including five in the game against SOAK. Julie Mandeville and Courtney Moberg each scored six goals, Jhacky Romero scored five goals, Tahnee Trew scored four goals and Sydnie Black and Katelyn Traut each scored three goals. Chase was also the team’s leading defender with 13 steals for the weekend. Moberg had 10 steals, Romero had nine steals, Mandeville had five steals, Vasquez had four steals, Traut had three steals, Black and Megan Schwab had two steals each and Sasha Betts also had a steal. Valerie Wong played goalie for the entire tournament, but her statistics were not available. • Contact Bob Brownne at 830-4227 or brownne@tracypress.com.