The Sierra Pacific girls water polo team is off and running in the Central Section Division III playoffs.
The Golden Bears won its first two games in the playoffs to advance to the semifinals against Lemoore Nov. 12. The winner will play in the Section championship game Nov. 15 at Sierra Pacific.
In its first two playoff games, the top-seeded Golden Bears defeated No. 16 Torres 18-3 in the first round and then beat No. 8 Santa Ynes 8-3. No. 4 Lemoore advanced by defeating No. 13 Bakersfield Christian 9-4 in the first round then defeating No. 12 El Diamante 12-5 in the quarterfinals.
The game will be a rematch of a game that happened earlier in the year when Sierra Pacific defeated Lemoore 16-6.
This season, Sierra Pacific (23-9 overall) participated in multiple tournaments before finishing third in the Tri-County League. The team improved on last season’s record when the Golden Bears went 15-14 and didn’t make it past the first round of the Section playoffs.
This year, the team has three freshmen: Zeo DeLaTorre, Alissa Souza, and Kaitlyn Bean.
One of the players, Kaitlyn Bean, said that this season is going “pretty good considering it’s freshman year.”
To get this far, the team has been getting a variety of players to contribute in meaningful ways.
This season, sophmore Mia DeLaTorre has scored a team-high 75 goals, senior Avery Silvester has 58 goals, senior Kelsee Hanson has 46 goals and Souza has 44 goals. Zoe DeLaTorre has 258 saves at goalkeeper and Bean has added 23 assists.
Souza said, “I feel like being a freshman makes me feel like I have so much growth and potential that I need to work on, and if I’m playing this good this year, I can’t wait to see how I turn out as a player my senior year.”
The water polo team is very optimistic and encouraging while also being very competitive.
“Our team is very positive,” Bean said. “There is always a lot of laughter going on even when things aren’t so good.”
At practices, the girls listen to music and get good laughs out of each other. But when it comes to game time, they are all focused and all try their hardest.
While the team has gone through many challenges, the girls always come together to work it out, even with a couple of laughs.
Coaches and teammates all agree that the supportive environment has helped the team grow stronger both in and out of the pool.
