Water polo takes the win at their last league home game

On Nov. 1, Samo played in their last league home game against Culver City High School and won with a score of 15-4. Even though Samo sweeped, the players did not think that their performance was up to par with their reputation in league. “This was probably one of the worst games we played this year because we did not play like a team,” coach Matt Flanders said.Samo had a rocky start ending the first quarter with a 1-1 tie. Even though Samo started off the with the ball, it kept on moving back and forth between the two teams.“Even though we won the game, we will have to step it up to beat Gundo at there own pool,” Alex Weng (’19) said.The team started playing much better in the second quarter, ending the half with a three point lead of 5-2. This improvement mainly had to do with Samo’s heightened aggressiveness after a talk with their coach. In turn, Samo had control of the ball more than Culver, giving Samo more opportunities to score.“We started off unfocused but really picked up the pace as the game went on,” Ari Niknia (’17) said.Samo’s streak continued into the next quarter with Samo gaining three points, putting the score at 8-3. In this quarter, the top scorer was Carlos Edwards-Palmo (’17) who kept on readjusting himself in the game to provide help to his teammates, which gave Samo a unique advantage over Culver. “When Flanders talked to us, I got really pumped up,” Edwards-Palmo said.In the final quarter Flanders ended up putting the second and third unit in the water, giving the bench a chance to play.“Overall the game could have been played way smarter,” Quinlan Plukas (’19) said. In the end, the team hopes to perform better for the next game so they can win league and continue their success in CIF.