Looming over her Westlake opponent, Sarah Horsey ’27 defends against an attempted pass. Her guard was up as she grappled for the ball.
Arm wound back, Katherine Mayer ’25 prepares to make a throw toward an open teammate.
Facing her opponent, Claire Braun ’25 raises her arm high to aim a pass across the pool.
Women’s water polo faced off against Hays-Johnson at the Westlake Natatorium on Tuesday, Oct. 17. This would be the last area playoff game, determining who would advance to Regionals. With a landslide victory, the Warriors took the game with a score of 11-4.
After their previous heartbreak losing district against Round Rock, the Warriors anticipated going to Regionals with this final play-off game. The game was off to a close start with the girls scoring the first goal of the game, but Johnson scored two goals just after and pulled ahead by 1 point.
“We’ve been working on a lot of new plays,” Katherine Mayer ‘25 said, “ [We’re] trying to get the ball into a lot more driving plays [and] really trying to get more people open and confuse the defense more.”
The Warriors quickly recovered and gained back their lead from the first quarter, with 5 successive goals in the second quarter alone. Field players Abby Horsey ‘24 and Sara Horsey ‘27 both scored twice in the second quarter, driving up Westwood’s points on the scoreboard. The girls kept the momentum up, with Mayer scoring two more goals in the remainder of the game, and lifting Westwood to regionals.
“Part of me [always feels] that I can do better,” Mayer said, “But that’s healthy and if I don’t have that I’m not gonna get better, but I think I did pretty good [this game].”
The girls will compete at the Regionals on Friday, Oct. 20, in Houston, TX.
