Lady Brahmas overcome issues

The girls water polo season ended on a high note, despite being cut short and not involving  league competition. The Diamond Bar High School team finished the season with a 2-1 record, highlighted by a victory  over Walnut High School, 19-8.

Due to the pandemic, there was no varsity team this year and practice was split into pods of twelve players each. The team’s head coach Devin Hunter confirmed that there will be a varsity team next school year. 

The team’s standout players mostly consisted of seniors due to their amount of experience in the water, but the team’s five sophomores also played well given their lack of experience, according to senior Sara Jew.

Jew also mentioned that some notable players include seniors Ariana Moran and Danielle Lopez and their impact in the water helping the team win a majority of their games. Jew said that Moran is highly proficient in swimming and  capable of stealing the ball frequently, giving the team more chances to score. She was selfless with her plays and always passed the ball to the best positioned player in her vicinity, Jew said.

Lopez served as the team’s goalie despite only training for the position for one year. Her strong throwing arm, Jew said, allowed the team to advance faster and could quickly spot who had the best opportunities to gain ground or score.

“This was her first year training as a goalie which was pretty impressive seeing as she was able to block multiple shots and gave us possession of the ball,” Jew said. 

At the beginning of the season, practice was geared toward developing strong fundamentals due to the extended period of time away from the pool. More time was put into letting the players readjust into the in-person environment with the majority of practices consisting of swimming and passing drills. 

“I think we lost the first game against Los Altos because a lot of us were nervous and didn’t get enough practice to be comfortable in certain situations. We had a lot of little mistakes that we managed to address after the game,” senior Samantha Rivera said.

According to Rivera, after the loss, the team discussed the small errors that were made during the game and went over which strategies and plays to drill and practice. The extra emphasis on those strategies allowed them to win the games over Walnut and Ayala.