Our Team

This Saturday, the Junior-Varsity Water Polo team was ready to fight. At 8 a.m, a whistle sounded: It was the beginning of the first game. The opponent was the team Pioneer High School. Both teams were really good. Number two, Katherina Cerpernic opened the scoring in the first period. Afterward, the goals didn’t stop: In the second period, Rena Hathaway – number 18 – scored two goals; in the third one, Rena scored two goals again and number 14, Emily Blatt, scored one; in the last period, Andrea Saldana-number 19- and Katarina Cerpenic finished the game with two others goals. Final score: 8-2 for Lincoln.

Unfortunately the two others games played by our team are more difficult. Even if they are tired, our players kept fighting in the second and third game but it was insufficient. Lincoln lost the second game against Woodside with a final score of 1-18. The swiftness of Woodside made the work hard for our defense. Our goalkeeper, Carly Casanova-Moore, stopped a lot of balls and helped Lincoln to keep fighting. Lucinda Wolcott scored the goal of Lincoln in the first period.

The last game was the hardest for our girls. They played against Valley Christian and lost 1-11. A lot of attempts to score are made by our girls, but the ball didn’t want to go in the goal. At the end of the last period, Rena Hathaway, finally opened the scoring, scoring the only goal. 

Our Captains

The two captains of our Water Polo team accepted to answer the questions of the Lincoln Lion Tales. 

Lucinda Wolcott, number 11 and Lizette Chavez, number 7, have both begun Water Polo last year. Lucinda was a Sophomore and Lizette a Freshman. Every week, they have practice every day after school. The last six weeks, they also had morning practice on Wednesday and Friday. The two girls are really confident for this season. Lucinda explained: “I think it’s gonna be a good year.Last week was our first tournament, JV has been doing so well. We have gone together as team pretty quickly and we’ve learnt pretty fast…Freshman learn really fast!”

Indeed, last week our girls won the three games at the Santa Teresa tournament. Lizette said that they all fit each other very well because there is no individual role in Water Polo, there’s just a team. To describe their team in one word, Lucinda chosen the word “close.” Lizette surprised us with the word “unique.” “We are all like different things,” she explained, “there’s junior, sophomore, freshman in our team but it doesn’t really matter here. We all just have this own group!”

She also explained that there’s a lot of Freshman who have begun Water Polo this year, which is not always easy. She added that with communication and adaptation, they can help freshman. “We help the Freshman to fit in the team and the coach help them with the technique,” Lucinda said.

If you have missed the two lasts tournaments, you can always meet them this weekend for a new successful tournament. 

If you hesitate to join the Water Polo team, here’s some words of the two captains: “If you want to have a great group of friends and a bunch of best friends and if you want to be challenged physically then you should play! But it’s really fun, come out and see what it is” said Lucinda. Lizette added, “Water Polo is a welcoming sport,” and she welcomes anyone to try!

If You Have Read This Article But You Don’t Really Know What Is Water Polo…

Water Polo appeared in Scotland in the late 19th century. At the beginning, it was considered as a sort of “Water Rugby.” One hundred years later, Water Polo’s rules are still similar at Rugby, but in water. Six players on the field, one goalkeeper, two teams, one ball. The goal? Put the ball in the opponent’s goal. The players have four quarters of eight minutes- an average of twelve with the clock stopped- to do the most goals. Easy? No!

Playing with your body half-immersed in water makes things a little bit more difficult. Water Polo players have to be able to stay in a pool during more than an hour without touching the ground. Martinez Vanessa, a journalist for the Irish Time cited Water Polo in her article The five toughest sports at the Olympics; Renfro Kim, a journalist, said in Business Insider: “Olympic Water Polo is the most nightmarish sport in the world.”