Making waves, this season’s girls water polo team has amplified the drive that led them to a CIF championship last year with the hope of repeating their success. Dominating the competition in the Prep League, the athletes have displayed their honed techniques with an undefeated record of 4-0; however, they have struggled in non-league matches with a record of 2-4.
During their 16-7 victory over Brentwood, Poly’s water polo team conquered each movement in the depths of a foreign environment.
Reflecting upon this impressive showing, Head coach Sean Grab mentioned, “When we go to an environment that’s maybe a little different than ours and we’re trying to game plan for that, sometimes things go really well and sometimes things go poorly and I think when we were there, we were able to understand and adjust what needs to happen.”
Despite the loss of two significant players, Liz Fogassa and Xochitl Ortega, who graduated last year, the team has been able to adapt.
Senior co-captain Kaylin Yagura noted, “Since we lost our center and set D, we’ve had to do a lot of reshuffling. My co-captain Natalie Vincent and I had to learn new positions that we would not normally play. However, we’ve also gained some amazing players like junior Eden Greene and our new freshmen.”
The team has also worked on building unity, allowing for the seamless communication that has distinguished them in the pool. Freshman Danica Hua remarked, “Everyone on the team is very friendly and easy to talk to. We all have bonded a lot and this has helped us at games. Our water polo team has a lot of strong players, and they do a great job of helping the less experienced players.”
The team’s flexibility and unity have helped them maintain a winning record so far. When asked about the differences between last year’s team and this year’s, Grab said, “I think we are really quick to understand concepts and ideas within the game. I think we are pretty strong-willed for the most part. You know, we deal with adversity relatively well. I think we can still get better at that but going through a season like last season with lots of ups and downs and challenges, it built sort of a strong will to be able to adapt and adjust to tough situations.”
