The Paly Girls Water Polo team concluded their historic 2024 season on Saturday, November 9, with a hard fought 8-15 loss to California’s 8th-ranked Leland High School in the CIF-CCS open quarterfinals. The team finished with an impressive 19-9 overall record, a 14-2 league record, and placed 5th in the CCS open division. 

The 2024 Paly Girls Water Polo was one for the history books, full of perseverance, effort, mentality, and combined effort. The season’s crowning achievement was winning the SCVAL league championship, Paly’s first since 2006. For the players, this was a defining moment for the team’s journey and progress.

“Our best accomplishment was winning the league championship,” Williams said. “The last time we won was in 2006 before anyone on the team was born, so it was a really special way to commemorate our season.”  

The 15 player Varsity team looked largely similar to the previous year, allowing them to strengthen their team chemistry and shared determination, which helped put them over the top. With little change to the starting lineup, the team was ready to take this season by storm. 

“I felt good about the team, we only had two seniors graduate last year so everyone knew each other and how we play,” Sophomore Sabrina Meyers said.

The hard work began over the summer, with optional practices offered to sharpen skills and conditioning in order to start the season off strong. The team also used this time to bond and understand team dynamics. 

“We were really close as a team entering this season,” Williams said. “Most of our team was returning from last year and we went down to high school champs in Southern California this summer to work on our skills as a group, and I think our friendship that we developed as a team helped us achieve our goals.”

As the season began, both the players and the coaches had their eyes set on the championship, especially the returning members of the team after coming up just short last year.

“We all wanted to win the League Championship – last year we got second, and so with most of the team returning we wanted to have a historic season,” Williams said. 

Right off the bat, the team dominated over their competition, scoring a total of 70 goals in their first 5 games. This wildly successful season came with many highlights and memories for the players, with many high intensity games, team spirit, and bonding. 

“One of my favorite memories was after we beat Los Altos in the league finals and the entire team was celebrating and jumping into the pool,” junior Maeva Herbert-paz said. “Our coach Deke Rowell did a flip into the pool, which was definitely fun to watch.”

Despite many accomplishments and positive experiences, the season was not free of challenges and obstacles. A main struggle was maintaining consistent effort from everyone on the team throughout the season. Due to high expectations from both the coaches and the players, not having the performance they wanted resulted in dips in focus and motivation

“I think one of the greatest challenges was getting enough motivation and having a good mentality,” Meyers said. “We weren’t really playing as hard as we could until the very end of the season.”

Additionally, due to constant training and game play, players were prone to injury, causing a loss of many key players which tested the team’s depth. Performance was affected due to lineup and positioning changes that forced players to adjust.

“We dealt with a lot of injuries this season which forced us to adapt through challenges,” Williams said. “After losing two league games in overtime we had to really refocus as a team.” 

These challenges still didn’t stop the team from persevering to achieve their goals. After their success from the season, the team looks forward to next season to hopefully continue their success and advancement, and will miss each other in the off season. With strong sophomores and juniors that showed immense leadership and contribution, the team believes they will have another strong, if not better, season next year.

“I’m really looking forward to next season, where I think we’ll be able to build off of our success this year, and hopefully do even better,” junior Estelle Dufour said. “I can’t wait for the next season, and I’m super confident in our team, and the strong bond that we have.” 

The 2024 Paly Girls Water Polo team leaves behind a legacy of spirit, grit, unity, and achievement, setting the stage for further success.