Westwood Water Polo blazed through the RRHS tournament ending it with a 3-0-1 record, with their only tie ending in a split call and a last-second penalty on the Warriors. This tournament took the Warrior record to 8-4-1 on the season with no district play so far.

To start the tournament off, the Warriors went 2-0 on the first day of the tournament. Winning with decisive goals, they beat Stevens 13-2 to begin their new win streak on the right foot.

“We are learning to play together so much better than last year,” Coach Matthew McBrearty said. “Instead of leaning on Freddy (last year’s MVP on offense) for every play, while that was good, the team overall is doing much better together.”

After a quick lunch break, the team got back in the pool ready for their final game of the day against PSJA for the first time in the program’s history. The Warriors won the game 10-3 due to the help of plays from Ethan Clark ‘26 that kept the Bears behind and boosted Westwood’s offense. With this playstyle, the Warriors got ahead early in the first half and didn’t give PSJA a chance to catch up for the rest of the game.

For their penultimate game of the series, the Warriors were excited to see how O’Connor could play as the Panthers had beaten the girls’ team earlier in the tournament and had given the boys trouble last season. However, with consistent steel wall defense and quick key offensive players, the Warriors could stop any breakaway shots on the goal and turn the ball back around quickly to end the third game 6-4.

A huge part of each tournament is the interim times between the games and proximity to opposing teams is a large part of this time. These extended periods next to your opponents often lead to feuds outside the games themselves. This particular tournament was no different: before the match against Taft, a Warrior’s newly-purchased ball was found in the Taft tent with ‘Raiders’ scrawled over the original owner’s name. 

“When we came back from our game against O’Connor I noticed our new ball was gone,” Sawyer Grimaldi ‘25 said. “Later on, we noticed that same ball sitting in Taft’s tent and that’s when we knew it was war.”

Now on the verge of the final game of the tournament against the Taft Raiders with a newly inspired flame in their bellies, the Warriors were prepared to give everything they’ve got for this win. 

“I am ready to fight with all I have,” Captain Meijers said. “There’s a vendetta behind this game — this is a match of honor.”

Starting the game strong, the Warriors went out with their shooters in the pool to try to catch an early lead and keep the ball out of Taft’s hands. So that is what they did — putting up three points in the first quarter and holding the Raiders to one goal even after they swapped out their main defenders for a more offensive playstyle. 

With a lead going into the second quarter, the Warriors swapped out their aggressive playbook for one to try and hold onto the ball for as long as they could. They swapped to force the Raiders into the second half at a point disadvantage and seed uncertainty about what their next play has to be. Unfortunately for the Warriors, Taft started to find their footing, forcing blocks by Captain Cole Osborn ‘25 to stop Taft from capitalizing on their new foothold. But the Raiders stood no chance in the face of Westwood’s defensive set, keeping them from maintaining control of the ball and ending the half 4-1 with a Warrior lead.

“Our defense did really great today in both of our games,” Coach McBrearty said. “When we are all in the right spot and playing as we have been, we’re pretty impossible to score on.”  

Leading into the second half, each team had one goal: scoring as fast as possible to outpace their opponents. This strategy is what was utilized through the third quarter with each team playing as hostile as possible. Each team’s belligerent playstyle caused penalties to be thrown between every pass for each team as the defenses vied for a shot at a turnover to put more points on the board. Soon this aggression turned against Westwood at the end of the quarter, as Taft found space for two back-to-back goals against the scattered Warrior defense, bringing the score going into the 4th 6-4 with Westwood still in the lead.

The whole game came down to these final moments. The Raiders, head of steam, saw the opportunity to take the lead. Now, it was up to the Warrior defense to hold onto the ball as long as possible and prevent any other slip-ups. However, this plan didn’t quite come to fruition as Taft was playing as fast as possible to score the three points needed to take the lead in the final game of the tournament. After a quick move from around a close defender, Meijers put in the seventh point of the game midway through the quarter. But the game didn’t end there as a lucky break put Taft back in striking range after they scored bringing them to 7-5 going into the penultimate moments of the game. Soon, both teams started to move at lightning pace by taking the ball up and down the pool. This resulted in three blocked shots from the Warriors and another quick goal from Taft exploiting a hole in the Warriors’ defense, dragging the score 7-6 in the final 20 seconds. As the clock ticked down, the Warriors swarmed the ball carrier, preventing any split shot at goal to try and keep the Warriors in the game. However, with a misstep, a Warrior fouled the Raider’s ball carrier giving Taft a final close-range shot on goal tying up the game 7-7 as the clock hit zero.

“Taft was a really fun opponent since we are both really fast teams,” Captain Meijers said. “But I feel our real strength was our quick passing and our set play which made everybody a force in their own right.”  

Coming off of a near-perfect tournament, the Warriors will play Round Rock on Friday, Sept. 3, in their first district game of the season.