On Oct. 23, Aragon girls water polo (5-5 overall) played Menlo-Atherton (10-0 overall) in their senior night game, losing 5-14. With the Bears undefeated, the Dons anticipated a challenging matchup going into the game.
“[Our] goal going into this game [was] to just do our best,” said coach Arman Zahabi. “This is a big game, but it’s also our senior night. We want to be able to play the seniors as much as possible.”
Menlo-Atherton had a dominant start to the game, scoring four goals in the first quarter.
However, despite the early setbacks in the game, the Dons managed to make it onto the board, with freshman Akira Snyder scoring in the first quarter. The Dons headed into the second quarter 1-4, with the Bears carrying on their momentum. Snyder scored another goal in the second quarter, ending the half 2-7.
Menlo-Atherton’s forceful start to the game put the Dons on the defensive, with senior and team captain Kasey Guerra Dorsa stepping up to make critical saves as goalie. Guerra Dorsa later moved to play in the field, allowing senior Alex Pate to take over in goal.
“Our team has gotten better as we learned each other’s strengths and weaknesses,” Guerra Dorsa said. “In the beginning, we had a lot of girls who had never played together before, so it was difficult to find an effective playing strategy. We definitely improved on this throughout the season and are now able to work well with each other.”
The Dons continued to fight in the second half, with Snyder scoring her third goal of the day in the third quarter. The Bears continued to score, with the Dons ending the quarter 3-12.
Energized by Snyder’s momentum, Aragon persisted. In addition to limiting the Bears to only two goals in the fourth quarter, junior co-captain Emerson Makuta and senior Keira Mclintock each scored a goal in the fourth quarter, bringing the score up to 5-14.
In spite of the loss, the Dons took pride in their development throughout the season.
“I loved watching our team improve throughout the season,” Makuta said. “I think that we improved with passing communication especially, which was also really exciting to see.”
The Dons took pride in ensuring that all team members had time in the pool, regardless of the final score.
“It was really important to me that we got our seniors in to play, so that was definitely new,” Makuta said. “We normally focus on starters, but playing with a different mix of teammates each time is definitely a fun experience.”
Team members also reflected on learning points throughout the game, with sophomore Lizzie Yuan highlighting the difficulty of breaking through Menlo-Atherton’s defense.
“I think the most challenging moments were just getting movement on offense to score, as well as scoring in general,” Yuan said. “We did our best… to run plays and get movements, and as the game progressed we took more and more shots, leading to more and more goals.”
However, she also expressed her pride in how the team worked together.
“We worked well against a really strong team that we knew would be difficult to beat,” Yuan said. “For the fact that we managed to get everyone or almost everyone some playing time, I think we did pretty good. The score isn’t always a reflection of how we came out of the game feeling.”
Moving forward, the team hopes to improve their performance in the Central Coast Section playoffs.
“We’ve gotten to know our teammates and their playing styles, and use it to our advantage,” said sophomore Kira Partridge. “We are definitely a much stronger team than we started as, and it shows through the scores.”
Currently ranked third in PAL Bay Division, the Dons hope to finish their season strong and secure a spot in the CCS playoffs.
