The girls water polo overwhelmed the Aragon Dons 15-3 in a roaring match on Tuesday evening.
Sophomore Harper Williams barely lost the sprint, but the Bears quickly turned around with junior Scarlett Shenk sinking the first goal of the night for the Bears.
With communication ringing out between players, senior Emily Freitas was able to sneak the ball past the Dons’ goalkeeper and into the net, elevating the Bears’ lead to 2-0. Junior Molly Gray scored the third goal for the Bears with 5:15 left in the quarter, heightening the Bears’ energy.
Tallying her second goal of the game, Freitas ended the quarter strong by elevating the Bears’ lead up 5-0.
The Dons took possession of the second quarter and quickly took advantage of a miscommunication in the Bears’ defense. Aragon made their first goal of the game, setting the score 6-1.
Senior EB Hoffman rallied against the slow start to the quarter and got the Bears back on track with a goal. Quickly following that goal, junior Sabine Polly scored with just two seconds left on the clock, ending the first half 7-1 in the Bears’ favor.
M-A entered the second half of the match with a newfound enthusiasm felt across the pool. “We had a lot of energy, and I think that really gave us the strength that we had in the game today,” junior goalkeeper Brea Trujillo said.
Starting the third quarter strong, junior Isabel Habibi* won the sprint for the Bears and scored the first goal of the quarter.
Senior Quinne Davis—playing in her first season of water polo at M-A—scored her first goal of the season. After the goal, Davis’ teammates raced up to her, drowning her in hugs and congratulations for her first goal at M-A.
Aragon attempted to catch up to the Bears’ lead, and was able to squeeze past the Bears’ powerful defense with just a few seconds left on the clock. With 2:31 left in the quarter, the Bears continued to dominate 9-2.
Replacing Nelson in goal during the second half, Trujillo asserted her defensive strength by making a dramatic block against the Dons’ shot to the upper left corner with 1:25 left in the quarter.
Habibi tallied her second goal of the quarter by sliding the ball past the Aragon goalkeeper and into the upper right corner of the net, ending the third quarter with a nine point lead for the Bears.
The energy from the first three quarters did not dwindle in the final quarter of the match, as the Bears’ bench was the most energized yet.
Gray kicked off the fourth quarter with another goal, hastening the Bears’ lead to 12-2. As morale continued to climb, junior Lily Chesler scored her first goal of the season after transferring to M-A.
“Being able to see how the team interacted during the games definitely helped me once I was able to play, because I understood the dynamic of the team a lot better with an outside perspective,” Chesler said.
The Dons were still trying to close the score deficit, and were finally able to score another goal after another miscommunication in the Bears’ defense.
Rebounding off of the energy from Chesler’s goal, Hoffman seemingly punched the ball into the goal after scrambling to grab the ball off of a questionable pass. This goal shocked all spectators, including Hoffman herself, with her swimming back to the middle with a look of utter disbelief.
With the Bears celebrating the goal just scored, Chesler was able to take the positive energy still radiating throughout the team and bag a second goal.
The Bears closed the game with a 15-3 victory, adding yet another win to their triumphant season.
“During our warm-up huddle, we made a goal to score 17 times, and we scored 15. Although it’s not the goal we originally set, we got a more diverse group of people scoring,” senior Zoe Gostyla said. Even though they were just shy of their goal, the Bears were proud of their performance and left with positivity and enthusiasm for the rest of their season.
The Bears will challenge the Carlmont Scots at home next Wednesday at 5:00 p.m.
*Isabel Habibi is a journalist for the M-A Chronicle.
