Girls’ Water Polo Snags a Win From Williston

This past Saturday, the girls’ water polo team challenged both the Williston Northampton School and Loomis Chaffee. The girls went 1-1 during the weekend, beating Williston 15-6, but losing 2-8 against Loomis. With an overall record of 2-1, the girls hope to rebound from their first loss of the season with a strong performance this weekend.

Exeter first faced off against Williston. After winning the swim-off in the first quarter, the girls picked up where they left off with Deerfield the week prior, putting their full intensity into each play. The team’s speed was the deciding factor in this game—Williston was simply not able to keep up. Exeter’s water polo team typically excels in terms of speed as their players compete on the swim-team in the winter. However, the entire team has been going through tough practices to condition themselves and the work seems to have paid off.

With faster players in the water, Exeter was able to jump out to an early lead.

Many of their goals came off fast breaks. However, to compete, Willston’s players were aggressive and dominated the pool in terms of physicality. “They were not very fast, so they made up for it in aggression,” Upper Emily LaRovere said. We definitely took a beating, but we were able to push through and make some great plays.”

“We were pretty tired from the start, so I think next time we play them we’ll do a lot better.”

Even though the Exeter team was challenged by the rough play, they made sure that their opponents could not comeback. As the lead extended, many of the bench players were substituted into the game and played solidly. The substitutions were able to maintain Exeter’s intensity and score.

Exeter had won by nine goals, but was worn out as they went into their game against Loomis Chaffee. Already disadvantaged, the girls had a tough start in their second game. Prep Issy Wise commented on the tough start. “The Loomis game was right after our first game, and we were pretty tired from the start, so I think next time we play them we’ll do a lot better,” she said.

The Loomis team also played more physical than Williston, making the match especially challenging. The combination of fresh legs and physical play made it hard for Exeter to push themselves back into the game. Loomis also had a very skilled starting lineup that was strong on both offense and defense. Exeter struggled to pass the ball to just their two meter player because of the tight defense, skewing their original plan.

Exeter was out-played in defense as well. “They played their two meters very well so we had to crash a lot, but then she’d flip it back out to the perimeter and they had three good shooters out there,” lower Maddie Shapiro explained,

Despite being discouraged after their first loss of the season, the girls still have a lot to be proud of from the two weekend games. They plan to practice hard over the next week and learn how to capitalize on their strength and speed so that the next time they face Loomis, the score will be different.