The girls water polo team competed in the state championship tournament on Fri. Oct. 23 and Sat. Oct. 24. The team was ranked second entering the tournment behind their season rival Upper Arlington.

Senior Jory Gould said, “Our goal was to win the tournament, and we all believed we could do it. We had a lot of confidence.”

In the first game, SHS opposed Napoleon. Prior to this game, the team had lost to Napoleon once and beat them twice. SHS was victorious, ending the game with a score of 11-5.

The team moved on to play the number three seed, Mason. The team was able to come back for a substantial win of 11-8 after being down by three goals at halftime.

Gould said, “The game against Mason really pumped us up, but it took a lot of physical energy out of us. I think that we may have underestimated how exhausting the tournament would be.”

The stage was set. SHS had completed the necessary tasks to make it to the moment where they could achieve their goal and make history. In order to win the state championship, they had to win one more game against the number one ranked team: Upper Arlington.

Gould said, “Before the game we all got really hyped; we were ready to come out and play. We all wanted to win, but we knew that it would be hard. We had never beat Upper Arlington before”.

Despite catching an early lead of 4-3 at halftime, the girls lost the game 11-6.

Gould said “It was hard, losing the game when we had been up. But what was really sad is that the season is over. I love my team, and they’re my family. I am so happy I got to have this experience with people I love.”
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Hannah May