After losing to Henry M. Gunn High School with a score of 8-4 in the final league game, the (Gunn) girls’ varsity water polo team still has high hopes of securing a spot in the Central Coast Section (CCS) tournament.
“We should have been tied in the third quarter, but when they got a couple easy shots, and then in the last quarter, we just came apart,” co-captain Martine LeClerc said.
The team has not been able to defeat Gunn in the majority of their games; however, they are starting to improve their scores with a win from the junior varsity. The team believes that in order for them to defeat Gunn, they need to not only focus more on guarding the key players, but also focusing on their attitudes.
“They got one goal, and then we were all like “Oh my god!, what’s happening’, and then we kind of just lost it,”senior Abby Bromberg said.
Despite a lost to Gunn, the girls’ varsity water polo team has high hopes in the next few games. The team will not be using the “m-drop”, a defense technique used when two people guarding the main set, otherwise known as the most dangerous player on offense, split three offensive players with two defensive players to score a goal, as often as they had before in their league games, but rather use it as a back-up plan.
“If we can guard the team leader set and keep the them fronted, then we don’t need it,”LeClerc said.. “We will only use the m-drop if the team is overpowering us.”
Overall, the team feels like the season has been successful compared to their 2011 season. They feel that they were able to improve greatly in communication and in working more cohesively as a team especially with the addition of seven junior varsity players in the team.
“Overall, it has been a drastic improvement in all areas of our game,”Coach Spencer Dornin said. Our defense has really come together, we know how to attack our opposing defenses, and some of our younger players has really become scoring stars. We have had great play out of the whole.”
“We have definitely improved on communication because we were very disoriented in the beginning of the year,” LeClerc said.
“We improved on playing as a team. Last year, we would pass the ball to only one key player and she would score all the goals. However, this year, we were able to work together more, know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and we have a lot of strong shooters.”Bromberg said.
The team hopes to defeat their next opponent, Wilcox High School, in their upcoming game. If the team defeats Wilcox, they will be guaranteed a spot in the first round of the CCS tournament.
“Our ultimate goal is to win CCS and we are going to go after that with the best of our ability,” Coach Dornin said.
