Girls water polo grabs their fifth home game win against Torrance

On Jan. 25 Samo’s girls water polo team defeated Torrance High School, ending their game with a final score of 23-3.The team quickly took the lead, ending the first half of the game with a score of 13-2. A few of these goals were scored by Harper Smith (’19), Shanna Stevenson (’17) and Lauren Gaudry (’19). “Some of our strongest skills as a team [are] our counter attacks and being able to come out strong at the beginning of the game especially,” Sara Amirdelfan (’19) said.In the third quarter of the game, the team continued with their strong offense ending the quarter with a score of 16-3. Smith, Gaudry and Audrey Hattori (’17) scored goals as well as great passes between Ava Tung (’19), Cora Ries (’18), Ana Gibson (’18) and Amirdelfan.The overall success of the lady greenies can be attributed to their excellent teamwork, and the hard work that every player put in.“I think the bench players and starters alike were able to pull it together and really work together,” Mckenna Davis (’19) said. The team really showed their defensive skills during the second half as well with good blocking by Kalen Lehmann (’17) and the team’s goalie, Amalie Luneng-Solli (’17), allowing Torrance to only score one goal.“I would say that what we did best during the game was that we kept our awareness high and played good press defense,” Amirdelfan said. During the fourth quarter the team truly finished strong with goals scored by Gaudry, Stevenson, Gibson, Tung and Ries, ending the game with a final score of 23-3. Samo also continued to work on their defense with blocking by Smith, Amirdelfan and Davis that prevented Torrance from scoring at all.Although the team played very well, coach Matthew Flanders believes that they still have room to improve.“[The team needs to improve on] intensity and playing up to the division two opponents we are going to see later on,” Flanders said. Despite this, Flanders admires the team’s work ethic and attributes their success to their determination and diligence.“Four years of constant work by these girls in club and off season, in season and weight lifting, they’ve become the best team they are yet through hard work,” Flanders said.Samo’s girls water polo won their fifth home game of the season due to their teamwork and concentration and are hoping to use those skills to win their next game.