On Wednesday, April 5, Girls’ Water Polo had its first home game. After two weeks of hard work, the girls brought their game faces and destroyed Williston Northampton School.
Until nearly halftime, Williston was ahead by three goals, but this didn’t discourage the Boars. They visualized what they all wanted to work on, focused on their defense, and made sure they were aggressive on offense and brought the score up to 8-6 by the end of the game.
Though the game was a team effort, Anna Ekholm ’17 put away three amazing shots during the third quarter, co-captain Nicole Sellew ’17 scored once in the first quarter and three times in the third quarter, while Tippa Chan ’19 was good for one in the second quarter.
The team as a whole worked hard to defend their goal, and Sydney Klakeg ’19 made 13 saves on the Boars’ way to victory. Adding on to that, co-captain Virginia Stanley ’17 played an amazing game defensively and made sure that she didn’t give away fouls to the opposing team or let the players from Williston get past her to get in on net.
Taking on Staples High School on Friday, April 7, Choate once again brought its talent to the first away game of the season. Although Ekholm was injured and could not play, the team managed to again defeat their opposition, this time with a score of 6-3. Once again, Sellew put away four outstanding shots, jumpstarting the Choate offense. Cecilia Zhou ’17 sprinted her heart out, and her hustle had an impact in every part of the pool. First-year Coach Brooke Rea did a fantastic job equally splitting the team up so that everyone on the team got enough or at least a decent amount of playing time, while also remaining tactically sound.
As a whole, Girls’ Water Polo put in an incredible team effort over the two games, defending and counter-attacking harder with each move. Also, with such a large group of new players and fresh talent, everyone is dedicated to the team’s success, whether on deck or in the water.
Sellew said, “I was super proud of the way the team played. It was awesome to see everyone get time in the water after working so hard in practice everyday. I have a great feeling about the rest of the season.” Through hard work, perseverance, and continuous improvement, Girls’ Water Polo is well on their way to a great season, with the last two results pointing towards a really positive trend this spring.
