Despite a strong individual performance by Celine Parel (11), making three of the six goals for Westview, girls water polo fell to Carlsbad 16-6, Jan 15. Calynn Ellicott (12) said Carlsbad’s offense was ultimately stronger than the Wolverines’.
“We went into the match pretty confident, because we beat them last time we played Carlsbad,” Ellicott said. “[But they] came out strong and stayed pretty strong [in] the first and second quarters. They fell through a little bit in the middle of the game, but then overall in the end came back strong again. They were also putting in extra effort since it was their senior night.”
Parel said she, too, felt hopeful heading into the game.
“I felt really confident,” she said. “I felt like we had a good chance of having a good game against Carlsbad, but we ended up underestimating them. Despite losing, I was proud of myself for getting goals and helping out teammates. In the second half of the game, we were really composed and communicated better. That communication led to fewer of their goals going in on us.”
Even though Westview lost, Ellicott said Parel had an especially strong individual performance.
“Our strongest player was [Parel] because she is really good at working fast,” Ellicott said. “She made fast shots, and Carlsbad’s goalie wasn’t able to block them. She stayed calm the entire game, and I think she played really well. She made most of the shots.”
The Wolverines weren’t used to Carlsbad’s pool measurements because it was wider than what they’re used to, according to Ellicott.
“For our team, I feel like a big challenge was the length of the pool,” Ellicott said. “It was harder because it was really short and there wasn’t a lot of room to make mistakes. Despite that, our communication stayed strong, and we tried to use the length to our advantage because we’re used to longer pools.”
She said the team stayed positive by reminding themselves that they can always improve in their weak areas for the next game.
“We all realized that even though we were losing by a lot, it was just a game and we could all move on from it and grow from this as a team,” Ellicott said. “We had two girls sick, and it was my first time coming back since my concussion. So, as a first game altogether, I think it was a great opportunity to make mistakes to grow from and take those mistakes and fix them and do well next time.”
Parel said the Wolverines made sure to maintain a dedicated mindset.
“We really kept our motivation up, and we never acted like we wanted to quit,” Parel said. “We persevered throughout the whole game. We stayed calm, cheered each other on, and were really supportive of each other. From that game, we learned that we need to be able to adjust to different pools and be a lot quicker. Personally, as the game progressed, the losses made me want to play harder and persevere no matter how many points we were losing by.”
