Girls’ water polo team set to head to CIF

The girls’ water polo is nearing its finale, with CIF games only a couple weeks away and Samo’s team is heading in with hopes of winning it all. Their overall score pre-CIF is 19-9-0. This is a notable improvement from the previous ’24-’25 season, which had an overall score of 12-13-0. They won League Championships against Culver City 7-5, so going into the championship Samo was seated first and Culver was seated second. Winning League Championships was great for the team, and while player Misha Lakhani (’28) was happy, she also revealed that their plays were not free of the flaws they have been working to remove.

“League Champs was interesting; we are so happy we won but it was a process. We had some good moments and we ended strong, but we could have started better,” Lakhani said.

The girls have been training to be aggressive early on in matches since the beginning of the season, but after winning game after

game, the team needed a few matches to push them again. Luckily, a few of their recent games just before CIF did just that.

“We had been playing lazily; most of the recent games have been high scoring blowouts for us. But the games against Acardia and Crean Lutheran have really tested us, which is good going into CIFs. Those games helps us realize where we need to improve things, like game awareness and executing plays,” Lakhani said.

With the team heading into their first CIF match, training those skills has been on Coach Matthew Flanders’ mind as well. Flanders is looking to continue working on the core skills of the team, which the group has been consistently training for all season.

“We have improved over the season, but we still have a ways to go before we are where we want to be. We will be working on the areas we can control, like player awareness and fundamental skills; the girls have been really working hard to improve that,” Flanders said.

There is always more work to be done. The team has been putting in a lot of effort during the season, Flanders comments on this.

“I have realized that we need to improve our off season prep if we want to take the next step.”

With the further practice he hopes to implement, Flanders says his hopes.

“I’m cautiously optimistic. We are putting ourselves in a position to win.”

Flanders isn’t the only part of the team with a good feeling going into the upcoming CIF games. The girls feel similarly, happy with both their wins and the amount of improvement they’ve had over the season. One such team member is Priya Bevacqua (’28). She also touches on the aims to improve their play.

“We’ve been learning new plays, and we’ve been working on communication a lot, and that’s been getting stronger. Whenever we

lost a game, we’re still together and we could reflect on what we did wrong so that we could get better for the next game. A lot of teams can’t do that or don’t feel comfortable with that, so we have a better

chance,” Bevacqua said.

Sydney Jones / Contributor

Girls’ varsity waterpolo comes together after a win against Villa Park with a final score of 12-11.