On senior night, the final home game of the season, the varsity girls water polo team lost to the Aragon Dons.
The Scots battled against the Dons, emerging on the losing side by a score of 9-4. The loss gave the Scots their 10th loss this season, making their record 1-10 in the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL), according to the league’s website.
Before the match began, the Dons lined up and received bouquets from the Scots, a tradition in Carlmont’s water polo community to celebrate their last home game.
During the game, players from both teams fought back and forth, attempting to gain an advantage over each other. At the end of the first period, the score stood at 4-2. Even though the Scots fought with intensity, they eventually came up short.
For some seniors, the game was bittersweet. Seniors Anika Marino, Jessica Conley, Mira Wakefield, and Sydney Phan all scored for Carlmont, giving them a goal in their last home game for Carlmont.
Despite the result, there were areas of improvement for both teams. For the Dons, the focus was on their need to improve their efficiency in front of the goal.
“We need to make sure that we are actually putting our shots away; we had a lot of good opportunities, but we did not put them [on target],” said Kielan Crow, Aragon’s head coach.
For the Scots, the seniors’ experiences were important. For some seniors, the event wrapped up an eventful career in the program with a tinge of nostalgia.
“As a senior, [having our last home game] really sucks,” said senior Nefeli Tsangaropoulos, a goalie on varsity. “We’ve had some good memories, and we’ve had some bad memories in this pool.
Despite the result, the Scots were still proud of their performance.
Tsangaropoulos said, “I think we played well today, and I think that’s the most important thing.”
Spreading throughout the team was a sense of optimism as the Scots look forward to wrapping up the season with the last game, an away game against Sequoia on Oct. 20.
“We’ve definitely had a good season in comparison to last year,” said Carlmont head coach Molly McNinch. “Hopefully, the next game, we’ll do a lot better [result-wise]. We’re hoping for a win for both JV and varsity.”
Players on the team echoed McNinch’s feelings, hoping to end the season on a high note by improving on issues that have troubled the team so far. Tsangaropoulos expected the team to show off their progress in the last game of the season.
Tsangaropoulos said, “We’re going to have better communication; we’ve worked on a lot this year. I think that’s really going to show on our last game.”
