The Westwood women’s water polo team faced off against Midway and Round Rock in a tournament at the RRISD Natatorium on Friday, Sept. 1. Both teams are long-time district rivals, but ultimately, the Warriors won 12-3 against Midway and were defeated 6-4 against Round Rock, last year’s district champions.

Going into their first district game of the year the Warriors were hopeful for their new season. Since the Warriors had played Midway last year, beating the Panthers handily, the team was confident in securing a victory. However, Midway opened the game scoring a goal just a minute into the first quarter, which made everyone more alert.

“I was really out of practice but I think I did a good job sticking with the others,” Effie Castel ‘24 said. “It felt good [to score my] first goal of the season, I felt like I was getting back into the rhythm. I think that since we had beaten [Midway] before, we thought it would be an immediate easy win, but when they had shot the first 2 goals over us I think that’s when we really had a wake-up call.”

After Midway’s first goal, Abby Horsey ‘24 picked up the pace trying to match the Panthers, scoring the Warrior’s first goal just 22 seconds later. Horsey kept that momentum going, scoring 5 more goals over the course of the game. The defense picked up as well, only allowing 2 more goals the rest of the game, and with one final goal from Shraddha Chaudhari ‘25 the Westwood Water Polo team secured a landslide victory.

“It was nice [to score] because it was like I’m better than them,” Horsey said. “I would say our goalie Vale [Escalona] helped me score a lot, her passes were really good. We played with [Midway] last year and we beat them too, but I didn’t play as well that game so this game was nice. [I’m looking forward to] beating Round Rock [this season].”

The Warriors played a close game against the Round Rock Dragons, with 4 different players scoring  goals and taking multiple close shots. In the second half of the game, the team really cooperated to make sure Round Rock scored as little as possible, who only scored 2 more goals the entire second half.

The Warriors will compete at their next tournament on Friday, Sept. 8, at the RRISD Natatorium.