Controversial officiating and long game delays led to an upsetting loss for the Carlmont varsity girls water polo team in Monday’s game against the Notre Dame Tigers. Amidst the game’s confusion, Carlmont continued to be resilient.
The Scots suffered a tough 7-4 loss to the Tigers, as head coach Molly McNinch thought the game’s officiating had much room for improvement. The game was plagued with massive pauses in gameplay and premature ejections of multiple Carlmont players.
“I think we had some really tough calls against us, which we can’t really blame for losing the game, but they definitely made it a lot harder for the girls to just play the game and not have to worry about getting a whistle blown at them every few seconds,” McNinch said.
Many players felt similar to McNinch and agreed that the constant pauses by the referees made it challenging to continue the game.
“I think there was a lot of confusion with the referees because they were calling some things on us and then not calling some things on Notre Dame, so it was confusing a lot of players and slowing the game down a little too much,” said Sydney Phan, a goalie for Carlmont.
Amongst the questionable calls by officials, there were multiple breaks in gameplay for referees to review calls and continue with the proper course of action.
“All those pauses in the game made it super hard for the team to keep momentum, and I think some of us really lost our concentration because of the referees,” said Emilie Kosman, a senior at Carlmont.
Despite the sour memory left by the referees, the Scots saw some improvement. There was strong defense played by both Carlmont goalies, Phan and Nefeli Tsangaropoulos.
“We had some really great blocks by Nefeli and Sydney. Nefeli especially had some really great blocks this game, and Sydney was dominant as always,” McNinch said.
Overall, positive gameplay left the Scots in high hopes for their next game, with big improvements in communication, ball movement, and defense being some highlights in this game.
