Girls’ water polo breaks CCS dry streak

When the the girls’ water polo players started their season in the De Anza League, they were the underdogs of the league. Having moved up to the league from the El Camino league this year, the team expected to be challenged with the fiercer competition. But the team has overcome these hurdles and finished with a  record of 12-10. 

The team scored an impressive 157 goals throughout the season. The team was led by Nikki de Roos and Mackenzie Rosenthal, who scored 56 goals and 24 goals respectively. 

Furthermore, with the girls winning 4-3 against Los Altos, the girls were able to clinch third place in the De Anza league. This helped qualify them for CCS, the first time since 2006.

What makes achieving this goal so much sweeter for the girls is the fact that they were able to accomplish it, even though they were unable to practice for part of the season due to the pool failure. 

“The girls were able to handle the adversity throughout the season when the pool was down,” coach Rafael Alapont said. 

However, CCS was by far their biggest challenge of this season. Coming into the CCS game on Nov. 16 as the underdogs, the team faced its most difficult opponent in the pool: Christopher High School. 

The girls played a fierce game against the Christopher High Cougars. According to junior Mackenzie Rosenthal, the key point in their CCS game was their offense.

“Our plan was to continue to play hard press defense and try to minimize our mistakes on offense as well as defense to give us a chance to upset a higher seeded team,” Alapont said. 

Although the girls played their hardest in the game, it was not enough to handle the Cougars. The girls eventually lost the game 5-2. 

Even though the team lost its CCS game, the players still have their spirits high for next year. Many of the girls are already looking at ways in which they can improve the team for next season. 

“[The teams] needs to focus more in order to do better,” Rosenthal said. 

With this mentality the girls hope to learn and grow so that they are prepared when the next season comes around.