During a thrilling water polo game between the Eureka Wildcats, the Falcons won 19-6 on April 3.

Junior Blake Stewart said that the game started out strong, as the Falcons ended the first quarter with a lead, but they had to renew their efforts after Eureka nearly caught up in the second quarter.

“The game went very well, in the first quarter we took a lead with seven goals. Then, in the second quarter, Eureka almost caught up with six. It turned back around in the last half with seven goals in third and four goals in the fourth for us,” Stewart said.

Senior MacKenzie Chonech said that these 19 goals were accomplished by more players attempting to score as well as increased movement throughout the pool.

“In that game, we saw more of our players taking shots on goal. We’ve agreed as a team that we need to work more on moving around the pool, so we aren’t leaving people stranded with the ball,” Chonech said.

Stewart said their success was due to pressure on the Wildcats’ offense to restrain possible shots as well as team communication.

“A few things we did well was keeping pressure on the defense to limit their chances to shoot. Another thing was communication on the field, calling for the ball and asking for a switch if your opponent matched up isn’t fair,” Stewart said.

Water Polo Coach Susan Bloor said that she played strictly varsity players in the beginning of the game but allowed JV team members to play during the second quarter to help develop their skills and game experience.

“Since it was a varsity game, we started with our varsity members. Because we are the only team in our conference with a JV team, we also try to work with the players from the JV team. The JV team consists of 10 new players. We put in the JV team in the second quarter so that they can gain some experience,” Bloor said.

Bloor said the team could improve by better communication, moving throughout the water, and plays including plays that the whole team knows.

“We encourage them to talk to each other and to continuously move and to move to what we call open water. We are always trying to improve on this, and they have been improving with each practice and game. We also would like to incorporate more plays that both varsity and JV players know,” Bloor said.

Chonech said improvements can be made by louder communication.

“Moving forward to our future games, we’re working on communicating in the water more, being loud is a big factor considering the pool is loud and echoey. Between the parents and coaches yelling, it can get harder to hear our teammates,” Chonech said.

Bloor said a goal for next season is to recruit more players so players could have more rest during the long strenuous games.

“We would like to grow the team by having more players, so that we can have more subs. Each varsity game is 28 minutes and we usually have 4 players that play the entire game. With more subs, players could rest a little and compete better with teams that have several subs for their game,” Bloor said

She also said she wanted existing players to stay active in the offseason by joining a water polo club or swimming.

“We would also like team members to play in the clubs that are offered for water polo as well as swim for Summit during the swim season. This will help with their endurance during our season,” Bloor said.