Both the boys’ and girls’ water polo teams competed in Regionals on April 20 through April 22. Due to the small number of teams in the area, they were able to skip over the district competition and head straight to qualifying for State. Both teams gave the tournament their all, but only the girls’ came away with a place in the state competition.

The boys’ team played three games during the tournament. Their first game was a hard fought win against McNeil, taking the lead near halftime to come away with the obvious win. The team then went on to play Midway High School from Waco, losing 2-11. Their third and final game was a loss that was unpredicted by the team against Anderson.

“Anderson beat us, which was tough because we thought we would win again there to make it to state,” Kyle Varozza ‘18 said. “It’s hard when you have a young team. A lot of the team is new, so I think that for their first season they did pretty well. Hopefully next year we’ll do better.”

The girls’ team came away from Regionals with more success. The first game they were scheduled to play was forfeited by the opposing team, starting the tournament off with a default win. The Lady Warriors next played against Round Rock, but despite their effort, the team lost 1-11. After the loss, the team needed to win their final game against McNeil in order to advance. The game was close, but the girls came out on top after several overtime periods with a score of 7-6.

“We had to go into overtime because it was tied,” Sam Smith ‘19 said. “We had two periods of three-minute overtimes. Even the people in the warmup pool were over watching us at that point.”

The team prevailed in the end, holding onto the ball for the last 10 seconds of the game after securing the win.

“When it came to the time that we needed to step it up, we all came together and did what we had to do to win,” Annie Bowers ‘19 said.  “Winning was like a rush of adrenaline. Everyone was screaming. It was an amazing feeling, I can’t describe it. We’re the first water polo team to make it to State from Westwood.”

The Lady Warriors will compete at State on May 5 and 6.