Wopo Defeats Deerfield in Close Game
The boys’ varsity water polo team edged out Deerfield Academy in its Saturday game to add a ninth win to their stellar season. After a long commute to the away game at Deerfield, Big Red triumphed over the opposing team, scoring ten goals to Deerfield’s nine.
“The game was messy, we struggled to be cohesive with one another.”
Despite the team’s victory, lower Charlie Venci commented that the players struggled to motivate themselves through the game. “Luckily, we escaped with a win. It was nobody’s day to have a big game. The whole team had an off day,” Venci said. He added that the players’ biggest challenge was confronting the dichotomy between their strong practices and weaker performance during the game. “I think the whole team was feeling poorly about that inconsistency,” Venci said.
Upper Justin Psaris agreed that Exeter fell below its usual level of play. “The game was messy, we struggled to be cohesive with one another,” Psaris said. He added that though the team anticipated defeating Deerfield by a wide margin, the players struggled to meet their expectations. “We thought we had an easy win, but things just weren’t working,” Psaris said.
Although some of the team-members were disappointed in their performance, they were motivated by the positive attitude the second-string players maintained. Venci said, “There was a lot of spirit and motivation coming from the bench; they were a huge part of our win and they definitely kept us alive in those moments of the game when it wasn’t looking good.”
The team still had a few positive moments during its triumph. Lower Andrew Sun said, “Harry Saunders took a shot half way across the pool and scored just as the shot clock went off.” Saunders’ shot brought Big Red within one point of Deerfield to end the first quarter. Bear Polo went on a 4-0 tear in the second quarter, which stemmed from the team’s stingy defense. Deerfield did not have much depth, but Exeter was able to shut down the threats on the opposition, forcing Deerfield’s weaker players to shoot the ball.
The challenges the team faced at its game helped Exeter to identify what areas of play it can improve. Psaris said, “We learned to not take anything for granted and never to go into a game thinking it will be easy.” Venci concurred that the match showed Big Red will not always exceed its expectations, commenting that the players’ main takeaway from the week was that they had to keep their motivation despite this challenge. “We will have bad days seemingly out of nowhere, and it is a challenge to deal with them, but you have to in the end,” he said. Along with these lessons in attitude towards approaching a game, the players also learned concrete areas in which they can improve. According to Sun, the team hopes to better the success rate of its shots on goal in its upcoming games.
Exeter will utilize these lessons as it enters the last stretch of its season. In the coming week, Big Red will play against the Loomis Chaffee School in one of its final games before Interschols. Venci said about the upcoming match, “Our goals are to take this tough day in stride and work to move forward in the final weeks of the season. We will take the win this week and with some work we will only get better.”