The girls water polo team defeated the Terra Nova Tigers 9-8 on Wednesday evening. The team secured the win in an intense final quarter.
The Bears started off aggressively, winning the sprint. After junior goalkeeper Fiona McGaraghan* notched back-to-back saves, senior Harper Williams drew a five-meter penalty shot. Sophomore Sofie Zlobinsky shot the ball like a missile, securing the first goal of the game with 5:13 left in the first quarter.
After another block by McGaraghan, senior Mica Podoly quickly sank another shot, increasing the gap to 2-0 with 4:27 left in the first quarter. Terra Nova answered with a perimeter goal, but Zlobinsky struck again off a long outlet pass from McGaraghan, extending the lead to 3-1.
The Tigers came back with a low corner shot, tightening the score to 3-2 to conclude the first quarter.
The Bears entered the second quarter aggressively, winning the sprint once again. The opening minutes turned into a back-and-forth battle, with both teams trading heavy defensive stops, physical perimeter fouls, and shots off the crossbar.
M-A broke the stalemate with four minutes left, when Podoly swam the ball nearly the length of the pool, sparking a passing chain that allowed sophomore Avery Moeller to skip a shot into the back of the net and stretch the lead to 4-2.
Possessions continued to speedily alternate, and the Bears didn’t let up in their aggressive shots. Williams and Zlobinsky each fired rockets that were stopped right on the goal line. On defense, junior Grace Lobdell* locked down Terra Nova’s top attacker, but the Tigers managed to sneak a pass out and sink a corner shot with 1:15 left to cut the deficit to 4-3.
Terra Nova pushed to erase their deficit in the final seconds, but McGaraghan came up clutch with a leaping buzzer-beater save, preserving the Bears’ 4-3 lead heading into halftime.
“We were kind of struggling a little bit in the first and second,” Podoly said. “During halftime, we had a really good talk, and we said that we were going to flush out what had just happened and we were going to start again.”
To begin the third quarter, M-A almost lost the sprint, but managed to tip it out of Terra Nova’s hands and maintain possession. Following several hard-fought offensive drives and lockdown defense from Zlobinsky, the Bears broke through as Williams banked a shot off the side post to make it 5-3. Terra Nova retaliated with a quick spin move to close the gap to 5-4 with 1:52 on the clock.
The Bears answered with a sudden surge of momentum fueled by Williams. After Moeller and junior Sila Curic shut down a Tigers pass up the middle, Williams broke free from her defender and slipped the ball past Terra Nova with 53 seconds left.
Williams struck again, firing a long-range rocket that sank into the left corner right as the buzzer sounded to send M-A into the fourth quarter up 7-4.
Terra Nova struck first in the fourth quarter by winning the sprint. Podoly swiftly shut down their momentum by intercepting an outside pass. McGaraghan launched a pool-length pass to Zlobinsky, who buried a shot just 23 seconds in to extend their advantage to 8-4.
However, the Tigers refused to fade quietly. Terra Nova went on a comeback streak, scoring two lobs and an inside corner shot to slash M-A’s cushion to 8-7 with 3:13 remaining.
With tensions running high after a Terra Nova timeout at 2:02, the Bears’ defense clamped down. M-A quickly capitalized when Podoly fed the ball to Zlobinsky, who drilled a sharp laser of a shot into the corner to stretch the lead to 9-7 with only 1:33 left.
“I think we need to come out harder in the fourth quarter. We need that fourth quarter push,” Williams said.
Terra Nova answered back with a high-corner finish, prompting an M-A timeout with only 27 seconds left. After play resumed, McGaraghan and Zlobinsky bled the clock down to three seconds before Terra Nova recovered the loose ball.
The Tigers lofted a desperate last-minute shot just as time expired, but officials ruled the shot null, securing the thrilling 9-8 victory for the Bears.
“I love my team. I think we all played very well together, and we started off the season, like, getting to know each other, and I think we’ve made a big improvement in just playing together really well now,” Zlobinsky said.
“I’m really proud of my team, and we knew that this was going to be a really difficult game. I think this is probably one of the most difficult teams in our league, so I’m really proud of us for coming out the way that we did,” Williams said.
The Bears will play the Los Gatos Wildcats at home on Friday at 5 p.m.
*Fiona McGaraghan and Grace Lobdell are journalists for the M-A Chronicle.
