Menlo-Atherton water polo teams just happy to have a season

From winning a dramatic, emotional Central Coast Section title to perhaps not even playing to suddenly having a season, the Menlo-Atherton boys water polo team has been through it all.

“It was literally not going to be a season,” M-A coach Tim Kates said after the Bears beat visiting Carlmont, 17-3, in a Peninsula Athletic League contest Monday. “We were hoping for the best but expecting the worst.”

The Bears settled for a season but with no chance to defend its CCS Division I title. For seniors Sonny Watkins, Gabe Montoya and Gavin Plume, that’s too bad. For everyone else, there’s next season.

“It was amazing,” Kates said. “We went from having no idea to getting thrown into it and making a mad scurry to put a schedule together.”

For the M-A girls, there is only senior Eleanor Fisher. After losing 12 seniors from last year’s team that lost in the first round of the CCS Division I playoffs to eventual runner-up Santa Clara, coach Lauryn Lesyna has developed a whole new group of players.

“We had a tough start to the season but because of that, we were more prepared for the league games,” Lesyna said. “With Castilleja gone, there has been some good, tight games.”

There was never going to be a CCS water polo playoff, so there was no harm done when the district schools decided to opt out recently.

“Really, I think we’re just happy to be playing,” Kates said. “We’ve been able to play good teams. We’ve had a couple of heartbreaking defeats in sudden death but it’s been huge for the boys to do what they do.”

M-A split a pair of games with St. Ignatius, each winning by a single goal. The Bears (13-2, 6-1) lone league loss was to Woodside in sudden death.

“Maybe we’ve missed the competition of the tournaments but we’re all pretty fortunate to get a season,” Kates said.

M-A scored the game’s first nine goals and 14 of the first 15. Owen Taylor led the offense with six goals. Jackson Garff and Julian Montoya each added three goals and Watkins scored twice.

Girls water polo

Even though she’s only losing one senior, Lesyna sees it as a huge loss.

“She’s our quarterback,” Lesyna said of Fisher. “She always leads the team in assists. I feel so comfortable when she has the ball. She can protect it, make great decisions and make the right pass.”

Fisher actually scored once, early in the game, before settling in as the distributor.

Ella Nelson led the Bears (11-5, 7-0) with nine goals, followed by Viviana Luna, who added three goals.

M-A took a 6-1 edge midway through the second period before Carlmont’s Ilayda Zlobinsky went off and helped the Scots eventually pull within 10-8 late in the third period.

Zlobinsky, who plays with the Stanford water polo club, scored seven times, most of them from long range and with the force of cannon shot.

The Bears scored the next four goals to regain control.

M-A can still achieve its top two goals for the season. The Bears want to finish the PAL season undefeated and “we want to see improvement,” Lesyna said. “This is a nice way to see that improvement, playing everyone twice.”