By Noah Mizer, ’21
On October 18th and 19th, the Upper Arlington varsity girls water polo team competed in the 2019 State Championship tournament hosted at Princeton High School. Upper Arlington took home the state title, defeating the Cincinnati Mavericks with a score of 10-8 in the final round.
This year, the team was led by senior captain Grace Houser and head coach Dan Peterkoski. Other key players include goalie Adrienne Watchman, Lydia Muldoon, and Caroline Colombo, who have all been named 1st Team All Ohio.
While it had been two years since winning their last state title, Houser felt confident.
“I think we were feeling pretty good about going into the final game of states because how we’ve played against teams in previous games,” said Houser.
To motivate her team, Houser emphasized the importance of technique, as most of the players participate in swimming in the off-season.
“We learned new tricks to kind of grow our water polo skills rather than just swimming,” said Houser.
Junior player Muldoon has high expectations for next season.
“I hope my team comes together, like we did at the end of these past two seasons, to fight for another championship. We always perform our best when our motivation is to do the best for the team and not just for ourselves,” said Muldoon.