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An impressive streak by Laguna Beach’s girls water polo team will face several challenges this week at the Bill Barnett Holiday Cup in Newport Beach.

The Breakers (3-1) enter the top, early-season tournament as the eight-time defending champion. The 16-team event runs Thursday and Friday at Newport Harbor and Corona del Mar high schools.

Laguna Beach is seeded second to Orange Lutheran (4-0), which beat the Breakers 8-6 earlier this season.

The Lancers are seeking their first Bill Barnett Holiday Cup title.

Laguna Beach’s Group B also includes top contenders San Marcos, reigning CIF-SS Open Division champion Newport Harbor and Santa Margarita.

Orange Lutheran’s Group A features strong teams such as Foothill, Los Alamitos, Corona del Mar and Mater Dei.

Los Alamitos recently captured the Villa Park Classic, defeating San Marcos in the semifinals and The Bishop’s in the finals.

One of the best first-round matches Thursday morning could be reigning CIF-SS Division 1 champion Corona del Mar playing host to Mater Dei in a clash of the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds in their bracket. The Monarchs have remained competitive despite the coaching controversy with their program.

The championship match is scheduled for Friday at Newport Harbor at 4:05 p.m.

Laguna Beach rallied in the finals last season to edge Newport Harbor 10-9 in sudden-death overtime.

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It was the only loss of the season for the Sailors. Newport Harbor went on to sweep CIF-SS and CIF SoCal regional titles last season and carry a 28-match winning streak into this week’s tournament.

The last team to capture the Bill Barnett Holiday Cup other than Laguna Beach was Foothill in the 2012-13 season.

Please send water polo news to Dan Albano at [email protected] or @ocvarsityguy on Twitter