Girls’ Waterpolo beat Culver City High School 4-3 on Tuesday, January 12. At the half, Samo was down 1-2 but came out strong, fighting to beat Culver City in the final minutes.Varsity player Leah Gutentag (’15) says that the last quarter was the most intense they team has played this season.“It was great to see the team able to keep it together and come out stronger after half time,” Gutentag said. “That’s always risky because you never know if you’ll lose or gain momentum and thankfully, we gained it.”During the first half, Culver was in control of the game. Although the score was tied 1-1 until four minutes before the half, the team was not playing its best, according to Caoimhe Whitebloom (’15).Samo came back from the half playing to win, with Iliana Arick-Harvey (’15) scoring to bring the Greenies ahead. Minutes later Culver brought the score to a tie once again but Samo captain Mackie Kennedy (’14) stopped Culver’s momentum and ability to score again by stealing the ball.Whitebloom scored the final goal in the last quarter to win the game, making Samo the victor over Culver City.According to Whitebloom, Samo coach Matthew Flanders was simple and straightforward when he spoke to the players at the half, saying that they could win, but that they needed to step it up in order to win league.“The hardest part was overcoming the errors we made,” Whitebloom said. “They capitalized on our mistakes, which is how they scored.”Assistant coach Niall Skehan said the team did an amazing job, especially considering the number of injured starters.“Many of our girls are out so it’s difficult getting in the routine,” Skehan said. “It’s quite a hard thing and they just played really really well.”According to Gutentag, this game was not only intense physically, but emotionally as well.“When we won. It was amazing,” Gutentag said. “We did everything we needed to. I was almost crying tears of happiness when the buzzer went off and I realized the work had paid off to give us a win.”

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