By: Erin Federigan

SAN JOSE, CALIF.— Starting off their pre-season for the Silver Creek Water Polo team is a match against Christopher High School on Sept. 17. They’ve been constantly improving on and off season to claim a win against the cougars after losing for two years in a row.

The team has been preparing to take them down especially after a 15-3 loss last season. They believe this is their opportunity to shine and finally take a win especially with most of the Cougar’s seniors gone.

The Silver Creek water polo team’s coach, Karlie Caruso has been working with them constantly every morning believing she can lift this team to greater heights. With Caruso’s guidance, the team believes they will be able to not only beat Christopher but other teams in their league.

Sophomore Makayla Antiporta and junior Maddy McFatridge trust that they’ve used their off season to improve in and out of the pool leading to them being confident they can beat the cougars.

Antiporta and McFatridge have conditioned their bodies over the summer by joining swim and dive. Antiporta says, “Swimming helped improve my stamina, endurance, mental mindset and strength overall. Not only that, it’s helped my treading and kicking too.”

Compared to last year, the Raider’s have come more prepared this time to defeat the Cougars. McFatridge says, “A struggle last year was we were missing a couple key players and we didn’t have access to our pool to practice in.” 

Another factor according to Antiporta was, “Christopher beat us last year because they had really big Division 1 players. Though, they were seniors and now they’ve left.”

Antiporta believes the star players of Tuesday’s game will be senior Keelin Matsuoka who plays point, Teagan Welch playing right driver and McFatridge playing set.

McFatridge and Antiporta are looking forward to this upcoming game and are hoping to take down the Cougars. McFatridge predicts a score of 6-5 and Antiporta looks at a score of 8-6.

As the team continues to practice for these next few days, the Raiders are certain they can secure a win after constant practice, dedication and resilience.