Carlmont’s JV girls water polo team lost 8-2 against Notre Dame High School in the Battle of Belmont.
The loss on Sept. 25 was partially due to the Scots’ lack of players. Carlmont was down three players going into the second half against Notre Dame. One of the Scots’ team captains Anika Marino, a sophomore, was unable to play due to injury. The two other players who were not able to play were sophomores Liv Martins and Campbell Kirk.
Martins was ejected from the game because she received three thirty-second rejections during the first two quarters. The first thirty-second ejection was for a foul that she received in the first quarter. Her second ejection, which counted as two and made her unable to play for the rest of the game, was due to a communication error.
The mishap occurred during the second quarter. When the score was 2-1 in favor of Notre Dame,
Kirk swam over to the side of the pool to her coach Molly McNinch, a math teacher at Carlmont High School. As the fans looked towards Kirk who had begun to choke on some water, Martins jumped into the pool.
A Carlmont player faces off one-on-one against a Tigers opponent during the game.
Martins and Kirk were now both in the pool which meant Carlmont had seven players in the water. The game was temporarily delayed as the referees decided what to call.
The referees called a penalty shot against Carlmont and a five on six where Carlmont is only allowed five players for thirty seconds and Notre Dame six.
When asked why Martins did not go into the ejection box, she said, “My coach told me to jump in, so without thinking I jumped into the pool and not the ejection box.”
When the penalty shot was thrown, goalie Sydney Phan, a sophomore, blocked the shot and the game continued on.
Notre Dame’s lead increased in the third quarter after their star player, Olivia Semien, a sophomore, made three shots against Carlmont to keep the Tigers ahead by four points.
“I played really well when I was on defense and I made a lot of steals where I press on the deep on offensive members and make them not get the shot,” Semien said.
During the second half, Carlmont struggled to gain points. Despite this, their enthusiasm was still tremendous. Scots fans cheered in the hot 96-degree weather even though most were crammed into the small shaded section of the bleachers. While the Carlmont fans cheered, the players communicated loudly in the pool, calling out names and positioning throughout the game.
The goalie for Carlmont, sophomore Sydney Phan, looks for an open player to throw the ball to in the first half.
“I think we did a fantastic job communicating, the team is already pretty tight and there are a lot of really awesome people with a lot of loud voices,” said Mira Wakefield, a sophomore and co-captain of the team.
As the game wound down Phan made some great defensive plays in the goal and the team continued to do their best guarding man-to-man in the pool.
“We always play really well and I think the girls really work hard and try their best every game. That’s all I can ask,” McNinch said.
After the game ended, the teams said their goodbyes and high fived, everyone went home to enjoy their warm fall night, and Caroline Turks, the sophomore goalie for Notre Dame, went home to celebrate her birthday on a special Wednesday evening.
