Girls' Water Polo Splits Double Header

Last Saturday, girls’ varsity water polo played against Loomis Chaffee and Williston Northampton School at Andover. Coming off of a five-point victory last week at Deerfield, the girls were very confident as they entered these two games. In their first Game against Williston, the team narrowly lost with a final score 4-5, playing hard to keep themselves in the game. However, in the next match, Exeter was able to rebound, finishing off the game with a score of 7-4 against Loomis. In these two games, the players really came together as a team, utilizing their many hours of practice, both before and during the season, to play their best.

Leading up to this game, the team has been working a lot on playing together and working as a team to score goals and defend their own net. Senior Janet Chen said, “We worked on a lot of new skills this week, and it was great to put them into practice.” Their hard work really showed in their performance in these games, especially on the defensive side. Upper Madison Hillyard said, “There were absolutely amazing shot blocks from the whole starting line! They were one of the key defensive moves that contributed to the end score at Loomis.”

“There were absolutely amazing shot blocks from the whole starting line! They were one of the key defensive moves that contributed to the end score at Loomis.”

In their first game against Williston there were a few key players that really helped to keep the team close to victory. One of these players was senior Michelle Ysrael, whose crucial offensive tactics lead to many goals. Senior Dana Yu said, “Michelle did really well the first game, scoring 3/4 of the team’s goals.”

The players were proud of their performance in the game against Williston but they knew that a few crucial plays could have made the difference between a win and a defeat. Nevertheless, in the second game, they were able to secure an early lead and maintain it through the first and second half. Among the players that made this possible was Chen. Yu said, “Chen played hole set the entire second game and was able to get a lot of goals from that position.” Later in the match, the team was able to allow for the new players to receive some game time. Hillyard said, “A few of our newest players played in the second game against Loomis, and they totally rocked it!”

In the future, the team looks to improve upon the chemistry in the pool, and they hope to be able to adapt to multiple pool environments. Senior Michelle Ysrael said, “We want to work on playing in shallow pools because we will face a lot of teams with experience with that, but most of all, we want to work on our communication for that is what will really give us the edge on other teams. ”

Although the team still has a lot to work on, overall, Hillyard said, “the team’s movement and control of the ball was exceptional, and I’m really excited to see how we improve over the course of the season!”