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After several years of heartbreaking near-misses, Menlo-Atherton High School’s girls water polo team secured the championship, beating Woodside High School 9-7 for the title on Oct. 17.
Coach Lauren Lesyna said Menlo-Atherton hasn’t won the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) championship since 2013.
“Since I took over the program back in 2019, we have been so close to a PAL title every year,” she said via email.
In 2019, M-A came in second to Castilleja, and in the 2020 pandemic season, the team was undefeated in league play but results weren’t tracked, she said. In 2021, the team came second to Burlingame in an overtime loss and then again in 2022, taking second by a tie-breaker.
“So, this win is definitely a sweet one,” Lesnyna said. “This is a young group who is ready and willing to learn. They take feedback very well, and they strive to implement it as quickly as possible.”
She credited goalie Lexi Nelson, a junior, and sophomore Scarlett Shenk, who scored 44% of the goals against Woodside, as key contributors to the team’s success.
Lesyna also singled out sophomore Sabine Polly, saying she had a great game against Woodside and scored two of the goals. “She is always hustling hard on both offense and defense, and she has a scoring mentality,” she said.
It’s a young team, so expectations for next year’s season are already high. “We only graduate three seniors, so we definitely hope to have a repeat performance next year,” Lesyna said.
