From rock bottom to rock solid, the Gilroy varsity girls water
polo team can be an enigma on a day to day basis.
Gilroy – From rock bottom to rock solid, the Gilroy varsity girls water polo team can be an enigma on a day to day basis.
The Mustangs suffered 6-5 loss on Tuesday to Notre Dame that coach Andy Been described as “a heartbreaker,” but on Wednesday his team bounced back with its biggest win of the year, defeating visiting Carmel High School 10-7.
The team is now 6-3 overall and 3-1 in the Tri-County Athletic League.
Trailing 3-0 at the end of the first quarter, things looked bleak for the Mustangs. But the resurgence of an ill and injured Jenny Ailes combined with lockdown defense propelled the team to eight unanswered goals and the victory.
“I think the main thing was (our players) were tenacious and they didn’t take no for an answer,” Been said, “because we got a lot of shots at the start of the game and they just kept shooting them.”
Ailes finished with a game high seven goals and senior Alana Osaki contributed three of her own.
“One thing we were doing at the end of the game, we were reversing the ball … across the cage, which then gave up an easy shot on the other side,” Been said.
The stingy defense of Lauren Van Herk in the hole and Talia Lauber in goal kept Carmel from getting back on track after the opening period.
“Today we talked about playing defense from the outside into the hole,” Been said. “(Van Herk) shut down the hole player. It doesn’t show on the scoreboard but she had a monster game.
“Talia just played a phenomenal game,” the coach added. “She was just distributing the ball perfectly to Jenny. We had a bunch of breakaways because of (Lauber).”
Ailes noted that Wednesday’s game was incredibly important for team morale after a disappointing loss the day before.
“(Tuesday) kind of put us down so I thought our team wasn’t going to have a lot of energy,” Ailes said, “because (losing to Notre Dame) was kind of a downer, but we picked it up.
“Something sparked me about wanting to beat Carmel since we lost,” she said.
The Mustangs will now look to make a move up the TCAL regular season standings before league playoffs.
“It puts us back on track,” Been said. “If Carmel can knock out Notre Dame for us, we’ll have that third seed (in TCAL playoffs). There’s Hollister, Salinas and us (vying for the top three seeds), so, we’ve got to pick off one of them.”
JV Note: The junior varsity Mustangs lost 10-5 to Carmel in a game played before the varsity contest. Chelsea Hill tossed in three scores while Kaitlin Muroka and Janae Lance each pitched in a goal.
