The Girls’ Water polo team will be taking on Los Altos in the first round of the CIF Division 3 Playoffs Wednesday, February 15.
Coming off of an undefeated season in league play, as well as winning the Mission League title, the girls will go into the tournament with hopes of a title run.
After defeating Alemany 21-3 in the Mission League Tournament final, the Wolverines took the title for the 21st year in a row. Just a few weeks before, the team beat Alemany 17-8 to maintain its nine-year undefeated streak in league play.
GIRLS' WATER POLO:
The @CIFSS Division 3 bracket has been released. Harvard-Westlake hosts Los Altos in the first round, Wednesday at 5 PM. pic.twitter.com/912Zsq06lH
— H-W Chronicle Sports (@HWCsports) February 11, 2017
CORRECTION: The game begins at 4 PM, not 5.
“I think we are a team that doesn’t have to improve on big things at this point, I think now it is just improving on details,” Head Coach Brian Flacks ’06 said. “[We’re focusing on] improving on the really small things and trying to clean things up, because these types of playoffs games can come down to one or two goals. So hopefully [we can] just clean up so we can be prepared for Los Altos next Wednesday.”
The Los Altos Conquerors are ranked first in the Hacienda league and finished with an 18-10 overall record. The squad is coached by Chris Coleman and Bobby Contreras and spearheaded in the water by University of the Pacific commit Brooke Contreras ‘17. Contreras was named the San Gabriel Valley Tribune player of the year after recording 136 goals and 50 assists her sophomore season.
Last season, the Wolverines made it all the way to the finals of the playoffs before falling to Martin Luther King 17-3. The squad is currently seeded fifth out of 16 teams in the Feb. 15-22 tournament, and will play Los Altos at home in the first round Feb. 15.
With a win, the team will move on to the quarterfinal Feb. 18. Despite the strong seed, the players will not allow relax, and say they will continue to work hard in practice to fine tune their play.
“We are so excited for CIF, and even though we are ranked at fifth, we are not backing down or taking it easy now,” Princeton commit Paige Thompson ’17 said. “We are working even harder in practice to fine tune all of the details of our play. We really think that we have a strong shot at playoffs this year and we are definitely bringing the fire.”
