Girls water polo: Falcons enjoying the playoff spotlight
The pressure of a sudden-death overtime certainly got Kaeley Sullivan’s heart racing. The Archie Williams High junior goalie doesn’t shrink from the spotlight with the game on the line.
“I prefer the high-pressure situations where the game is tied, or it’s close,” Sullivan said. “But we can’t let that pressure consume us. It’s just more fun.”
Sullivan showed that when she stood tough in the Peregrine Falcons’ 10-9 sudden-death overtime win over Davis on Tuesday. The win launched the Falcons (21-7) into the CIF Northern California Division II semifinals. The fifth-seeded Falcons are scheduled to face top seed Leland on Friday, 2:15 p.m., in Stockton.
The Chargers (21-8) are a perennial power, reaching the NorCals each of the past six years the tournament was held, in either Division I or Division II.
“We have nothing to lose and they have everything to lose,” Sullivan said of the matchup. “We’re going in like we have to put our all into it. We all want to win. We want to keep our season going. We’re going to give it our all.”
No. 2 seed Clovis North and No. 3 Saint Francis are playing in the other semifinal earlier in the day, with the championship set for Saturday.
The Falcons are back in the NorCal Regionals for the first time since 2019, when they lost to Clovis in the first round. The Falcons advanced to the NorCal semifinals in 2017.
This year’s Archie Williams squad is receiving words of encouragement and advice during its playoff push from some other standout alumni from the Marin water polo community, including San Anselmo native Ella Woodhead, who played for Sacred Heart in high school. Woodhead, as a 2-meter defender, helped Stanford University win the NCAA championship this season with an 11-9 victory over USC on May 14.
“This season been really great,” Sullivan said. “We’ve played together for years. We all played club water polo together for years. We know we win as one, and we lose as one.”
The Falcons are currently riding a 12-game win streak that stretches back to Oct. 3, a 15-2 win over neighbor San Domenico. Archie Williams has outscored foes 152-48 during that stretch. The Falcons’ last setback came Sept. 30, a 11-10 loss to Saint Francis.
The Falcons attack is powered by senior Loretta Hovey and freshman Holly Hovey, and Avery Hinkelman, Ingrid Wahlstrom, Cate Logan and Sylvie Fine.
“We’re always pushing each other, lifting each other up,” Sullivan said. “Our defense has gotten tremendously better. We’ve grown together as a team even more over the season.”
Watching her teammates in front of her has helped Sullivan lift her own game in the net as she turns back shot after shot and fights for loose balls in front of the cage.
“My confidence has been a lot better this season,” she said. “I’m more confident I can make the tough passes. I trust my teammates. It’s not like one person is doing everything all the time. For me, it’s really nice having those people to lean on. With our team, we all have each other to lean on. No matter what the score is, or if I’m just having a bad day, they are always there to push me up.”
The competition is getting tougher as the season nears its end, but so are the emotions. While the players are focused on each game in front of them, there is the realization that this is the last season these self-described sisters will play together under the Archie Williams banner.
“With seven seniors on the team, it’s been a special season,’ Sullivan said. “I got to see them play ever since my sophomore year. It’s cool to see how much they’ve all improved over the years, and how much we’ve all improved. This team was not built in one year. It was built over the years.”