Water Polo Trashes WHN & Hopkins
Exeter’s Boy’s Varsity Water Polo Team extended their winning streak to five games with a victory over Exeter’s rival, Phillips Academy Andover, on Wednesday and two wins against the Williston Northampton (WNH) and Hopkins Schools in their matches on Saturday.
"It is easy to feel powerful when you beat both teams by a lot. But we still have to tell ourselves that we have a lot to improve on."
Senior Will Soltas said, “Both of the pools we played in have shallow ends which dramatically change the pace of the game and style of play.”
Despite playing their Andover game away, Big Red came away with ten goals to Andover’s five. The team also played their Saturday doubleheader on the road, and triumphed with a score of 21 goals to four against the Williston Northampton School and 19 goals to seven against the Hopkins School.
The games were successful for Big Red, but they did encounter challenges in the matches. According to upper James Wang, the team’s Head Coach, Don Mills, was away for the Saturday games and the practices leading up to them. The team was instead coached by Teaching Intern Avery Reavill. Despite not having their usual leadership, Reavill guided the team to victory.
Although Big Red has a strong record, they have taken extra care to remain humble and hardworking in their games, even when they are ahead by a wide margin. Upper Troy Marrero identified keeping a modest mindset as the team’s biggest challenge of the week. He said that the week’s games taught him to “never come into any game too confident. There’s always a chance of losing.”
Lower Andrew Sun seconded Marrero’s observation, saying, “One of the biggest challenges is to not get ahead of ourselves and lose the bigger picture. It is easy to feel powerful when we beat teams by a lot. But we still have to tell ourselves that we have a lot to improve on.”
In particular, Sun attributed this lesson to the game against Andover, a team that varsity has not lost to in four years. He said, “We went in pretty confident as we beat them by quite a margin last year.” However, he added that the Andover team challenged Big Red. “They put up a good fight, but at the end we still came up on top,” Sun said.
The team credits their captains, seniors Jamie Cassidy, Taylor Walshe and Jackson Parell, with helping them to win their games. Marrero said, “Our captains bring fire to every game, and are always there to provide advice and support.”
The players are counting on this strong leadership to guide them through the rest of their season. Sun said, “We definitely have a lot more potential this year, as six out of the seven starters are seniors.” Sun added that this talented lineup could help Big Red finish the season with a victorious final game. He said, “Hopefully with this team we can finally win the championships.”
In the coming week, the team will play against St. John’s Prep in their Wednesday game, and take on Choate Rosemary Hall on Saturday. Marrero outlined the team’s objectives for the matches. He said the goals are to, “Finish the week and the rest of the season undefeated.”