Despite having a young roster with only one senior, the girls’ water polo team is cruising to a 19th consecutive league championship, and an eighth undefeated Mission League season in a row. The squad has already clinched a Mission League championship with a 17-7 overall record and a 10-0 start in league play, and if the Wolverines win their final two games against Louisville and Alemany, it would make 87 consecutive games won for the girls’ water polo program.
“We have a really young team, and we are all still learning, but the older girls have been great helping everyone improve,” Camille Oswald ’17 said. “Mission League play has been great for us so far. Notre Dame was definitely a challenge, but we just kind of rose to the occasion to beat them twice.”
The team had dominant performances against Marlborough, Marymount, Louisville, Alemany and Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, winning all of those games by at least 10 goals. The team was ranked ninth in CIF Southern Section Division III Coaches’ Poll as of press time, and is ranked first in the Mission League, ahead of rival Notre Dame, whose only two league losses came to the Wolverines.
“I think it’s going pretty well right now. It’s awesome that we are 10-0, and we are really aggressive to the ball, and we like to use our game plan which is to push the attack,” senior captain and leading goal scorer Sophia Gonzalez ’15 said. “We have definitely gotten better every game, we are growing, and the team has gotten closer, so this season has been really good so far.”
After losing in the CIF-SS Division III quarterfinals to Upland High School 12-7 last season, the team is looking to return to the elite level of winning divisional championships in 2011 and 2012.
This year, the team has faced three other teams in its division aside from the ten Mission League opponents. In the Bonita Tournament in late January, the squad defeated Santiago 17-9 and topped La Serna by a score of 15-13. However, the Wolverines lost to Troy by a crushing score of 13-12 in the Bonita Tournament.
The team’s last regular-season matchup will be against fellow CIF-SS Division III opponent Palos Verdes Feb. 13, but the Wolverines will still have to take care of business in Mission League play first, as the league season concludes with a Senior Night match against Alemany Feb. 12.
“I’m looking forward to my last home game on Senior Day,” Gonzalez said. “However, I hope that we will have some more home games when we make the playoffs, but at the end of the day, I am happy with how my final season as a Wolverine has gone.”
