A new coach and a returning group of talented juniors helped take the girls’ varsity water polo team to new heights this season. They are currently ranked sixth out of 13 teams in the league, much higher than last year’s ranking of second to last.

Coach Kirsten Frazer credits the team’s additional experience during the past year as the main reason for the vast improvement in their play.

“The majority of the team are juniors, so they’re starting to play better as a team and they’re starting to have a bigger view and knowledge of the game,” Frazer said. “They have more game awareness, and they have better passes, and they can see where the passes need to go.”

Aside from the strong upperclassmen players, this year’s team also has several strong underclassmen who have contributed to the team’s success.

“At first it was a little awkward, because everyone already knew each other,” said freshman Caitlin Donnelly, who often starts at hole set. “But then you get to know them, and it’s a very accepting team. It’s been easier than I thought it would be to become part of the team.”

The overall team atmosphere has also become more driven and intense since last year, according to junior Charlotte Montoya.

“Last year, we won one game in the entire season. We did work hard, but most of us hadn’t been playing a lot,” Montoya said. “This year, we almost have 100 percent attendance at practice, everyone is on time, everybody does the swim sets. We really take it a lot more seriously.”

Aside from the change in attitude, the team’s rigorous practices have helped them to perfect the skills that they lacked last season.

“They swim hard, and they counter really well, but if they can’t pass the ball, or it’s a bad pass, then what’s the point?” Frazer said. “So those are skills we try to drill into them every day.”

Many of the team members have a strong swimming background, which has helped them tremendously, according to Montoya.

“We can keep up with other teams, and most of the times we out-swim other teams,” Montoya said. “We have a lot of hard workers and people that played club throughout the summer and winter, and that definitely made them better.”

The team will now move on to compete in MCALs after a tiebreaker with Novato. The tiebreaker was resolved with a coin toss between the school’s athletic directors that decided which team would advance to MCALs. As they begin their post season play, they remain optimistic.

“I know that teams like Drake and Tam that play together year round are very good teams, and they’re gonna be hard for us to beat,” Donnelly said. “But I think if we go in with a mindset of the fact that maybe we can do well, and we don’t just go in scared to make mistakes and lose to good teams, then we can do well.”