The Paly girls’ water polo team defeated Lynbrook tonight by a score of 10-3. Defense was the name of the game for the Vikings, anchored by a strong performance by goalie Abby Bromberg (’13).
Paly struck first with a goal by Emma Wolfe (’14). The defense held strong for most of the quarter. Bromberg had three strong blocks to deter Lynbrook attacks. Then, with 2:07 left in the quarter, Lynbrook snuck one past Bromberg off a penalty shot, tying the game at one apiece. The Vikings bounced back quickly when Bromberg threw a deep pass to Tess Van Hulsen (’15) on a fast break. Van Hulsen powered past all Lynbrook defenders and scored. Paly took the 2-1 lead and never looked back for the rest of the game.
Lynbrook came out in the second quarter determined to shut down Paly’s high powered offensive attack. For the first three minutes of the quarter neither team scored. With strong ball movement Paly was able to find Wolfe open in front of the goal and got her the ball. Wolfe proceeded to score her second goal of the game to give Paly a 3-1 lead. Van Hulsen’s second goal of the game and a shutout quarter by the Paly defense gave the Lady Vikes a 4-1 lead at half time.
The Vikings picked up where they left off to start the third quarter. The dynamic “T and T” duo of Van Hulsen and Tara Lawrence teamed up to get Lawrence a goal with 5:38 left in the quarter.Lynbrook came back to score a goal just a minute later making the score 5-2, Paly. Lawrence answered Lynbrook’s comeback by scoring another goal to extend the Viking lead to 6-2. The next possession, Hannah Bundy (’14) drove down the pool and scored on a deep shot to put Paly ahead 7-2 at the end of the quarter.
Viking domination continued in the fourth quarter. Martine Leclerc (’13) jumped on the scoring train by putting a shot in the back of the net with 4:32 left in the game.Lynbrook fought back and gained some momentum by scoring a goal with three minutes left in the game. However, Abbey Kinnaman (’13) stuck the dagger in Lynbrook’s comeback hopes when she scored a cross net goal with 1:58 left in the game. This gave Paly a 9-3 lead. Katie Francis (’16) added the icing on the cake by scoring the last goal of the night with a mere 20 seconds left.
After the game coach Spencer Dornin discussed his team’s victory.
“I was very pleased with our defensive effort,” Dornin said. “I just think we played very well.”
The Vikings will next take to the pool tomorrow in a tournament at Palo AltovHigh School.