Head Coach: Michael Allegretti
Last season’s record: 11-1
Recap: Losing only one game against Mountain View, the team finished first in the El Camino league with a senior-heavy roster and five club players. The team placed 3rd in league finals, narrowly missing out on CCS.
Key Matchups: Mountain View
Star Players: Sophomore Riona Coghlan and seniors Tamar Garniek and Ava Sadeghi
Key losses to graduation: Ryder Gangemi, Lera Polyakova
League: El Camino
Prognosis:
Coming off a phenomenal 11-1 season last fall, the girls’ water polo team had few players try out this year. Last year, the team had 15 players on the varsity team and 9 on the JV team. After losing 7 players to graduation, the JV team has been cut, leaving a total of 8 players on varsity when 7 players are in the game at any time.
Nine former JV and varsity players such as sophomore Isabelle Jadali and senior Leena El-Ashwami decided not to play due to time constraints. In addition, senior Rebecca Bossow is currently participating in a German exchange program and senior Cassidy Coghlan, a standout player, made the decision to focus on rowing as her main sport.
“It’s a whole new body of people,” senior Ava Sadeghi said. “Other than three of us, the rest were former JV players. Everyone is trying to work together in a way we haven’t before.”
The team is depending on sophomore Riona Coghlan and seniors Tamar Garniek and Sadeghi to be the leading scorers.
The team also only has one freshman, Shruti Kamath, perhaps because the Class of ‘28 is the first class required to stay in PE class while also playing a sport. Kamath has done swimming in the past but is playing water polo for the first time this year.
“It was kind of hard at first because I thought I was pulling down the team, since I wasn’t as experienced,” Kamath said. “But my teammates helped me a lot and I’ve been improving. When I was struggling with throwing the ball long distance, my teammates helped me with my positioning.”
Despite the decimated roster, head coach Michael Allegretti is finding ways to keep the program moving forward in his third year as coach.
“[Allegretti] has been so amazing this season by taking on both the girls and boys teams. He has adjusted to smaller practice sizes by running drills that don’t require as many players,” Coghlan said. “He dedicates so much of his time to us and the boys’ teams. [He] is also just a generally nice person and you can really tell he enjoys what he does.”
The team’s first scrimmage against Westmont on Aug. 29 ended in a 6-5 win. The team placed 4th in the Battle of the Bay tournament hosted by Hillsdale on Sept. 7, losing to Gunn 8-9, beating Hillsdale 9-8 and losing to Carlmont 12-2. Their first league games ended in a 7-2 win against Cupertino on Sept. 10, an 8-6 win against Monta Vista on Sep. 12 and a 12-5 loss to Homestead on Sep. 17.
“Our team is really good at working together and not getting mad when someone misses a shot or makes a mistake. All of the more experienced players are super nice and understanding,” Coghlan said. “I think if we can put in a little more effort at practice to improve our passing and shooting skills, we can have a really great season.”
