On Dec. 9, the San Dimas High School girls water polo team took on their rival school, Bonita High, in the annual Mermaid Bowl game. The game was full of intense and spine-chilling moments, but the varsity girls fought through the game, running on every lasting breath, to show to the Bearcats that they weren’t going to let them win that easily. At the end, the girls water polo team did not win the bowl, but demonstrated that as a team, they were strong together and nothing can take them down.

The first half of the game has started, with the Bonita team scoring most of the goals in the beginnings, that was a tough start for San Dimas. However, the lady saints were not ready to give up yet, as they know this was only the start. After coach Jesse, the coach of the San Dimas girls water polo team, pulled them to discuss game plan, the team felt more prepared and ready. As a result, they were able to make great passes that the girls from the Bonita team couldn’t intercept, and when Senior Faith Kearns got the ball, she threw the ball precisely and lead the team to their first goal of the game. When Kearns made that goal, she described the feeling as, “extremely excited because I’ve been working four years to play in my senior year Bonita match and scoring the first goal was motivation for me and my team to continue trying our best to hopefully beat them,” Senior Kearns said.

The game continued, with the varsity team still continuing to give it their all despite the Bonita team making many of the goals, but San Dimas was able to score two more goals that were shot by Senior Jayden Hanson and Isabella Marroquin. Those two goals with the goal that Kearns scored earlier made the team more determined to give 100% of their effort for the entirety of the game, and that is what they did. Nevertheless, Bonita did not have an easy challenge to secure a win.

Unfortunately, even though San Dimas did play exceptionally well, they did not win with a score of 3-11 at the end. Nonetheless, they still felt proud of themselves of all the effort they put into this game, as they grew and became stronger together as a team, feeling more ready for more games for the rest of the season. Junior Carla Armale, who was a wing during the game, expressed her feelings after the game as, “although we lost, we were able to gain much knowledge about our team and what we should focus and work on. During the game, it was very intense, going against a strong team we quickly had to figure out what defense we should do. The score was not a total reflection of how we played. We were able to make many good opportunities but working on putting those away will help us to become a better team and put away more goals.”

So, despite the loss, the San Dimas high varsity girls water polo team made a wonderful memory together that they will remember and cherish as a team for life.