On Thursday, April 14 and Sunday April 17, the girls’ water polo team competed at regionals. The girls played two games, one against Round Rock HIgh School and the second against McCallum. They lost the first game, but pulled it together in the second game to get fifth place in the region.

In the Thursday night game against Round Rock, Westwood lost 10-3. With a player being taken out of the game after being hit in the face and another with tendonitis, the girls were struggling to keep up their endurance through the entire game.

“They were a lot better than us,” Emily Ngo ‘19 said. “They had plays and it seemed like they knew what they were doing. They seemed like they had lots of years of experience. Our teams lack of experience dragged us down a little. I think next year we are going to be a lot better, because this year we had a lot of newcomers to the sport.”

After losing to Round Rock, the girls played McCallum on Sunday, for fifth place. Westwood won the game with a final score of 7-5. Goalie Cassie Jackson ‘18 blocked many of the shots that would have led to a win for McCallum. She also had an interesting perspective of the game. She was able to be in the water without constantly swimming after the ball.

“I think our team could’ve worked to get back on defense,” Jackson said. “McCallum didn’t have as fast of players as us but they were more aggressive, but I feel like our speed gave us an advantage.”

Most schools have enough people on the team where they have a full rotation of players, allowing their players to have breaks and rest a little before getting back in the water. On the Westwood girls team, there are only three substitutes. This means that the girls have more playing time but? get tired more easily.

“Having less players affected us,” Sofia Martinez ‘18 said. “It was really easy to get tired so I think if we had two lineups it would be easier because we’d have fresh bodies and it’d just be better overall.”

In Westwood’s second year of having a water polo team, the girls went from winning no games to placing fifth at regionals. Unfortunately, only the top four teams make it to state.