By Michael Aronson
Senior water polo players Alec Zwaneveld ’12, Brian Graziano ’12, Bradley Schine ’12 and Cesar Velasquez ’12 played their final regular season game as Wolverines Wednesday in a 27-9 victory over the Notre Dame Knights.
Zwaneveld led the team in scoring with seven goals on the day, giving the Wolverines their third consecutive victory over the Knights dating back to last season.
“This gave us some momentum going into the playoffs,” Head Coach Brian Flacks ’06 said. “[The win] was nice, but now we are only focused on the first round of CIF next week.”
The win puts the team at 16-8 overall and 3-1 in the Mission League in Flacks’ first season as the head of the program. Flacks’ squad finished one game better than former coach Robert Lynn’s 15-9 team last season.
In Wednesday’s game, players were aggressive on both sides of the ball as referees repeatedly reprimanded them for misconduct. Several players were ejected late in the game including Notre Dame’s goalie, the Wolverines Griffin Morgan ’13 and Zwaneveld.
Despite not having their senior star for the latter part of the game, the Wolverines came out on top with extra help from freshmen Morio Saito ’15, Johnny Hooper ’15 and goalie Anthony Ridgely ’15.
The team will play in the first round of CIF playoffs next Wednesday against a team to be announced later this week.
“It’s a brand new season now,” Flacks said. “[Playoff] brackets come out Sunday and now our only focus is getting better for Wednesday.”
