The boys varsity water polo team lost 12-8 to Mountain View High School Spartans today, September 20. The Eagles started slowly and were down 5-1 by the end of the first quarter.

“We dug ourselves in this hole in the first ten seconds,” junior Ryan Seltzer said. “After that we just let in a few goals and they just ran away with it.”

The team partially attributed this defeat to frequent lapses in defense and overall poor execution throughout the game. Ryan also noted that the team’s defense fluctuated greatly throughout the game. During the first and fourth quarters, Mountain View was able to capitalize on the Eagles’ weaker defense and scored heavily.

Although the Spartans kept up pressure in the second quarter, the Eagles rallied during the third quarter to bring the score to an 8-8 tie.

“The third quarter saw us have an amazing run of 5-2, leaving us at 8-8 in the middle of the fourth,” junior Derrick Lu said.

While this spectacular comeback ultimately fell short, it was a significant turning point of the game. Team captain senior Ian McColl, senior Paul Bergevin and junior Sam Lisbonne were instrumental during this period of the game and contributed greatly to the team’s revival.

“They were all over the pool and played some great offense and defense,” Derrick said. “They made some great plays.”

The fourth quarter ended with the Eagles losing 8-12.

Another significant occurrence during the game was a series of questionable referee calls made throughout the game. While these calls were detrimental, the players did not solely attribute their defeat to these calls, and also mentioned their inability to react and adapt effectively to the referee’s calls.

“As with all losses you can blame refs,” Ryan said. “But we should have been able to adapt.”

With this rough game behind them, the Eagles are looking to improve and use this loss to take their abilities to the next level.

“We were all part of the loss, and all we can do now is take the loss and train harder for next time,” Derrick said. “Our final goal is to win CCS, so maybe a loss is what we need to help us get in the mindset to just train hard.”

Although the mental aspects of sports are often overlooked at the high school level, it is clear that both teams gained greater appreciation for the importance of thorough mental preparation.

“We didn’t come ready to play,” Derrick said. “We knew they would be trying hard, but I guess all our success went to our heads.”

This defeat is the Eagle’s first loss of the season and brings their league record to 3-1.