Currently standing undefeated in league, the Saint Francis girls’ water polo team started their season strong with an 8-2 record. Coming off an impressive preseason, the Lancers placed first out of sixteen teams at the Aptos Invitational. The team also hosted the annual Saint Francis Invitational on September 20, where students were dismissed from school early to accommodate the large volume of people coming for the tournament. With a season of success ahead of them, let’s see what happens behind the scenes with our Lady Lancers and some of their biggest successes so far.

Practice is vital to the team’s success and typically consists of drills or a swim set followed by passing, shooting, and then scrimmaging. Captain Anna Fazioli (’25) described scrimmaging as her favorite part of practice because “it’s the most entertaining and the best part of playing water polo.” She added, “It’s when everything we’ve been working on in drills translates into the actual game.” Another exciting part for the team is “practic[ing] shooting during the drills,” according to Sophia Ereno (’26). 

Team chemistry is another important factor to such a collaborative sport like water polo. Ereno stated that the team “is really supportive and fun.” Fazioli further emphasized that “we are all very close [and] water polo is very much a team sport, so we have to be working together and communicating at all times. We do a pretty good job of having fun outside the water, and working hard when we’re in practice or weights.”

Special game day traditions always help bring teams together to lock in for games. For the Girls’s Water Polo team, you can always find them in matching outfits on game day. Fazioli stated that it is “fun to all wear the same outfits to school, especially when they are home games. Normally that just means our varsity jackets and jeans, but sometimes we even coordinate the color of our collared shirts.” Ereno added that right before games, “we always listen to music before games which helps us get excited to play our opponents.”

An important game for the Girls’s Water Polo team was their recent 12-11 win against Clovis High School at the Saint Francis Invitational. Fazioli stated that it “was a pretty big win for us, because in previous years we’ve lost to them by a bit more. It was a close game that went back and forth, so I was proud that we were able to pull out a win in the end.” She added, “Water polo is a lot about momentum, and if one team gets ahead, it’s hard to catch back up.”

With all the hard work, enthusiasm, and time that these Lancers put into their sport, you should come out and support the team through the rest of their WCAL games and into the postseason!