Girls Water Polo wins third-place trophy at Newark Memorial Tournament

The girls’ varsity water polo team got off to a great start this season with a third-place trophy they won at a three game tournament at Newark Memorial High. With the tournament lasting two days, the team won two games out of three and beat Freedom High School and Heritage High School. Their second game was against Granada High, with a total of eight teams in the entire tournament. Although they lost their second game, they bounced back to win 11-7 with their amazing counterattacks.

Additionally, we were able to see newcomers in the game playing their best and working hard to win. Undeterred by the fact that they were new to the team, the players concentrated on their strategies and pushed away all anxieties or nervousness that they had.

When asked about the team and the tournament overall, junior Brittany Tan said, “We were a pretty disheartened team after Granada high beat us in the preliminaries, but after an amazing lunch, we came back an entirely different team. Right before the game, our coach pumped us up and that energy stuck throughout the entire game and led us to victory against Heritage High.” This is Brittany’s first year at water polo, and she proved her skills with great plays and counterattacks. On the other hand, freshman Jade Wellman, one of the goalies for the team, got some really great saves and passes.

It was a difficult tournament and a challenge for the team overall because they had lost graduating seniors including their professional goalie. However, they didn’t let this get to their morale, and made sure to really work on communicating and knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. The girls’ team was extremely motivated throughout the tournament and was looking forward to playing their first tournament out of the entire season. As demonstrated by their win in the game against Freedom High, the girls’ team improved largely from last year and kicked butt!

Junior Mindy Chin exclaims, “We have amazing coaches and an amazing team, and I know we’re are going surprise Mission and Washington this year. I can’t wait!”