Girls start season perfect in district play
By JUSTIN KANE
One goal is on the mind of the girls water polo team: defend the district title. After finishing 14-2 last year the girls look to repeat their success even after losing 13 key players.
Predominantly underclassmen, the team is filled with inexperience as
well as new talent.
“We are working hard, and we have a very strong junior class,” Creighton said. “With hard work and determination, the underclassmen will step up and lead the team.”
Nicole Regan is one of the nine returning players helping lead the new players.
“We have to better the inexperienced,” Regan said. “The best we can do is push on and not think of the loss [of players] but think of what we can do now.”
Leading the team on defense is senior goalie Taylor Reeves. Reeves, who is in her fourth year playing on the team, received the honor of making the 2009 National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association All-America
Water Polo team.
“Water polo means a lot to me,” Reeves said. “It helps me relieve stress from the week when I participate.”
Starting the year at home with district play, the girls faced Colonial on Feb. 25. Reeves did not allow any goals and senior Alexis McGee led the attack with seven goals. Defensively, junior Alexa Rossi had seven steals and
McGee had three.
The girls then traveled to Winter Springs to face the non-district Bears. Winter Springs scored more than Colonial, scoring three goals. But senior Bianca Parente scored three goals and McGee scored one, giving the girls a 4-3 victory and a 2-0 record. For the second straight game, Rossi again had seven steals and McGee had two.
The girls improved their record to 3-0 (2-0 in district) after a blow out victory over Cypress Creek winning 22-2. McGee led all scorers with five goals.
At the Wildcat Invitational on March 6, they faced Gulliver, Ransom, St. Andrews and St. Thomas; four of the top teams in the state according to coach Creighton. They finished with three loses with a win over St. Thomas. Again, McGee led all scorers in the tournament with 10 goals.
In the highly anticipated game, the girls faced off against rival Winter Park, who is ranked first in the Orlando Sentinel Super 6, March 13. Despite their best efforts the girls couldn’t hold the Wildcats and lost 1-14.
New players present challenges
By COOPER BROCK
Tomorrow, the boys’ water polo team plays two away games against Oviedo at 10 a.m. and Lake Brantley, who is ranked fourth in the Sentinel Super 6, at 2 p.m.
Having lost the last five games, the team hopes to secure two more wins to balance their 4-5 record. They originally planned to start this season with an advantageous home game schedule, but due to weather conditions two out of the three games early in the season were cancelled.
Despite the bitter cold, the boys began their season dominating Colonial with a 23-3 blowout game. Mark Hendryx lead the team in points by scoring first and scoring several times after that for a total of 11 points. Also scoring were seniors Adam Brunson and Kyle Adams along with juniors Taylor Crenshaw and Nicholas White. Freshman Brendan Ellixson scored the final goal.
“It was a great game to start with because it really helped provide a solid start to a hopefully solid season,” Ellixson said.
Leading up to that first game, the team had been practicing new strategies to focus on having a solid defense and an effective offense. Brunson and Hendryx have provided the defensive resistance that is keeping the boys in the running for districts. In the game against Winter Park on March 13, Brunson had 10 blocks.
Though the boys lost to the Wildcats who are 10-2 and ranked first in the Sentinel Super 6, they did score more points in this game than the past two years combined. The game ended 13-5.
“This is really a rebuilding year,” Creighton said. “A lot of seniors left us last year and now we’re taking in many newcomers to support the team.”