Story by Isabella Jonasen
Staff Writer
Photos by Mac Shropshire
Staff Photographer
Girls’ water polo celebrated their Senior Night on Thursday, Jan. 23 on a high after their 13-10 win against Monrovia. The team’s seniors are Reese Buckley, Cleopatra Walker, Lana Encinas, Elsa Polensky, and Sabine Ornelas.
Although the Wildcats took the first point of the first quarter, the Tigers had a quick comeback when Walker swiftly passed to sophomore Ruby Meyer, who shot and scored the first goal of the game. Minutes later, Meyer quickly retrieved the ball from a Wildcat player and scored again.
The Wildcats tried to keep up with the Tigers’ persistent goals but continued to fail with the Tigers’ strong defense. Ornelas got a hold of the ball after a few failed attempts of passing between the Wildcats and scored another point for the Tigers. Towards the end of the first quarter, the Tigers’ defenses weakened and the Wildcats scored twice on the Tigers before the clock ran out.
The Wildcats began the second quarter with the first goal once again, but then Meyer quickly fired back with a clear shot. Shortly after, Monrovia scored another two goals against the Tigers, but with some strong passes between junior Riis Dickey and sophomore Hayun Lee, a Tiger goal was made. This continued to go back and forth as the Wildcats would score then the Tigers would fire back with another shot.
Freshman Taylor Burns had killer defense in the goalkeeping position, knocking out the last few attempts at the Wildcats’ scoring. Monrovia’s shots hit the rim of the goal multiple times throughout the round. Burns’ defense pushed the Tigers to score their last goal before the buzzer rang. The Tigers’ teamwork led to them win the high-scoring game 13-10.


After the rush of the game, Buckley said, “I think it was really fun, the energy was really high because it’s Senior Night and everything and we just got to play around. We got to play more people on the team and it was really fun, we got to put all our effort in.”
Once everyone was situated and got dry, water polo balls signed with heartfelt messages from the whole team were given to the seniors. Candy necklaces, many flowers and accessories, and gifts were also given.
Head coach Joe Cox gave a meaningful speech speaking to the seniors, saying, “Whatever they do next year, they will absolutely kill it like they did this season.”






