The girls’ team of the local water polo club travels again to the Junior Olympics | High School

The Orcutt Polo Association girls water polo team will return to the Junior Olympics.

The OPA Girls 18U team has advanced through qualifying and will compete in Session 2 of the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics, taking place July 25-28 in the Bay Area.

The OPA Boys 18-U team also qualified for Session 1, which began Saturday and was scheduled to run through Tuesday, also in the Bay Area.

“All but two of our girls are from Righetti,” said OPA girls coach Chris Yee, who is also the Righetti High School girls water polo coach. “The other two are from Atascadero.”

“We did pretty well at the Junior Olympics last year,” Yee said. “The teams were split into two divisions of 24 teams each, and we won our first two games and placed in the top 24. We finished 21st overall.”

Eight of the twelve players on the OPA girls’ water polo team roster are attackers. Nine OPA team members played for Righetti in the 2023 water polo season.

The OPA team has only one goaltender, but that one, Riley Olney, was a bulwark for a Righetti team that achieved a solid 17-11 record in 2023, Olney’s junior year.

“She really is an excellent goalkeeper,” Yee said.

OPA all-arounder Tessa Hidalgo believes the team has a lot of momentum heading into the Junior Olympics this year. Hidalgo will be in Righetti’s senior class next school year.

“At the high school state championships, we went 3-3 and beat Clovis West in a shootout,” Hidalgo said. Clovis West made it to the semifinals of the eight-team Central Section Division 1 playoffs last year during the high school water polo season. Righetti was eliminated in the first round.

Orcutt played Orange Lutheran in a state tournament preceding these Junior Olympics. Orange Lutheran, which was 29-0 in the high school season and finished atop the national girls rankings in the winter, beat Orcutt 20-2.

“I think we could have done better against Orange Lutheran,” Yee said.

Nevertheless, OPA attacker Gia Bettencourt said: “We will take some valuable experience from this game into the Junior Olympics. We will also take some valuable experience from the other games we have played into the Junior Olympics.”

Hidalgo said: “I think it was good for us to play those games to get out of our comfort zone. If we hadn’t played all those games, I don’t think we would be the team we are today.”

Bettencourt will also be a senior at Righetti next year. The same goes for OPA attacker Hannah Moon.

Moon said it has been a long road for her OPA team to get to the Junior Olympics.

“We trained particularly hard this summer,” said Moon. “We participated in many tournaments.”

Several players from Righetti’s water polo team, including Moon, Bettencourt and Hidalgo, also compete for Righetti’s swim team.

As for water polo, “We practice year-round,” Moon said. “Even during high school swim season.”

OPA’s forwards include Moon, Bettencourt, Reese Nickerson, Kalie Campbell, Melia Karamitsos, Katherine Strohl, Amaya LeMaire and Evangeline Brown. The all-around players are Hidalgo and Matti Powers. Natalie Alvarez is the lone defender. Olney is the lone goalie.