Girls water polo: Archie Williams still perfect in pursuit of repeat

Ingrid Wahlstrom and her Archie Williams teammates are putting in a lot of hard work as they defend their MCAL girls water crown week in and week out. But they also find time for fun.

“It’s much more hard work now than it was playing middle school water polo six years ago when we were first playing together,” said Wahlstrom, a senior with the Peregrine Falcons, who rolled past Redwood, 15-3, on Thursday in Larkspur.

Falcons junior Avery Hinkleman scored a game-high five goals, while Loretta Hovey added four goals and Holly Hovey scored three goals. Delaney Fair scored twice and Wahlstom tallied one goal.

“This is the most fun it’s ever been,” Hinkelman said. “The older players, we’ve been playing with each other for so long and we know each other so well. The game today is so different from the way we played four years ago, but it’s still fun.”

Archie Williams is one of two remaining teams undefeated in MCAL play. The regular season could end in a battle of unbeatens when the Falcons (11-7, 5-0 MCAL) face Marin Academy (16-1, 6-0) on October 18.

“There’s a lot of good parity in the league now,” Archie Williams head coach Todd Duplanty said. “We’re fortunate our girls have been playing together for so long. It’s like they know how each other thinks.”

The Falcons were on the same page against the Giants as the Archie Williams teammates fed the ball ahead to Hinkelman, who scored three goals in the first period during a 6-1 run. The teams traded goals in the second period before the Falcons outscored the Giants 8-1 in the second half.

Kate DeForrest scored twice for Redwood, which also got a first-period goal from Giselle Orson.

“That was a team win for us,” Duplanty said. “We’ve been talking about playing with purpose, and that’s how you play with purpose. We did what we’ve been talking about in practice.”

The Archie Williams offense drove the ball hard to get high-percentage shots against Redwood goalkeeper Aurora Devilbiss busy. She managed 15 saves, but she couldn’t stop all the shots.

On the other end, Falcons’ goalkeeper Laurel Cooper was almost as busy as she stopped 12 shots, but the Giants had few quality looks.

“The defense was great today,” Duplanty said. “Everyone was helping each other and moving all over the place.”

The Falcons looked like champions during Thursday’s win, as they hope to give the seniors another title before graduation and to set the bar for the underclassmen.

“The goal is certainly to have fun and win games, but also to help the freshmen,” Wahlstrom said. “We have seniors on the team this year who have gone through JV and varsity together, with lots of ups and downs, and we mean a lot to each other. … I want the underclassmen to feel like they have a voice, to know that it’s about everyone and everyone has different strengths. We have some really good underclassmen, so for the next few years Archie Williams should be really good.”