Girls polo remains undefeated in league

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There’s nothing like the intensity of a crowd before the important shot. Nor tension of the people in the water and the excitement that follows. For the MC girls water polo team, this array of feeling led them into a winning game against Valley Center, their top competition in the league.

“Valley Center was beating everyone in the league since 2003 and then when we came in the first time we played them we won by nine points,” senior April Purdy said. “We played them next at the San Diego Open and won by four. The third time we played them was our bi league game, and we beat them by one. We were down or tied the entire game so it was a big upset.”

Valley Center amped up their intensity in hopes of defeating MC, but to no avail. This last game played on Feb. 5 was the game that decided whether or not they shared the league title.

Besides their successful league game, the polo team made a mark at the San Diego Open, a tournament where almost all schools in San Diego competed. MC came in second to Bishops and had a chance to scout out all their CIF competitors. Since girls polo moved to Division I, they compete against very few teams during the season that they will see in CIF so this tournament bolstered their knowledge of their competition.

The two key games that the team won were against Granite Hills and El Camino.

“We want to go somewhere in CIF this year,” Purdy said. “If we want to do something really good we need to win these two key games.”

With only two more league games, against Canyon Crest and Orange Glen, the team looks forward to CIF in their near future.

“We feel pretty good about the rest of the season,” senior Vanessa Evans said. “We are going to be league champions after we play our last two league games, and for CIF we are hoping to be seeded third so we will be able to go far.”

With a little more season left before they wrap up, Evans looks back and finds this as one of the most meaningful seasons she experienced while playing for MC.

“We have had one of the best seasons I have participated in,” Evans said. “We are really close, like a family. Since we are all good friends we can joke around with each other. I guess we all have our little nicknames and little quirks about ourselves that we tease each other about. I was given the name “V-baby” sophomore year by Emily Purdy, April Purdy’s older sister, and it just kind of stuck.”

Nevertheless, the rest of the season is underway and the girls refuse to back down.

“Practices are still intense,” Evans said. “John [the coach] doesn’t want to back off on conditioning; we are not going as hard as we were in the beginning of the season. We are keeping practices intense and focused so we will be ready.”

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