Fans watched on the edge of their seats as the boys’ water polo team rallied from a 7-3 halftime deficit to tie the game with two minutes left against Hillsdale High School on Wednesday, Oct. 29. With under a minute remaining, Hillsdale scored again, and the Panthers fell short, narrowly losing 12-11 on senior night to finish league play with a 8-4 record and a 3rd place finish.

Despite dominating Hillsdale 22-9 earlier in the season, the Panthers were aware of Hillsdale’s prowess and growth since that first matchup. Senior Oliver Canniffe said the team couldn’t outscore Hillsdale because they lost momentum during the game.

“We knew going into it that the team that we played, although we had beat them previously, had made major improvements throughout the season,” Canniffe said. “And we knew we had to approach it with a level of intensity that we had kind of struggled to find throughout the season.”

Heading into the match, junior Colby Dang said the team designed a game plan to combat two of Hillsdale’s standout players, but was unable to stop them. Despite the strong opponents, Dang added that the team could have played stronger to edge out Hillsdale.

“I think we underperformed a little bit, we beat this team before, but we fell short today by one point, and it was just a tough struggle, but it’s fine because we had a fun day,” Dang said.

Dang said that while he believes the Panthers are better than Hillsdale, this overconfidence also contributed to their defeat. Still, he looks to maintain a positive mentality for the team’s next match.

“I don’t think people are getting too upset about this because we’re confident about Aragon, we played them before, it should be easy,” Dang said.

Coming off the loss, the Panthers are eager to improve as they prepare for the Central Coast Section (CCS) playoffs. Canniffe said the team still needs to develop a championship mindset to make a successful post-season run.

“We kind of need to build a championship pedigree,” Canniffe said. “No team is gonna really succeed in CCS or really any game at all, unless they have a desire to win and they take practice seriously and they show up every day, ready to play, ready to practice and ready to get better. And I think that’s what we lack the most.”

Despite the pressure to succeed, coach Rory Hocker said he hopes the team works hard and takes pride in their performance, regardless of the result.

“Let’s say we get the job done. We move on to next week. But if we don’t, the guys can leave the pool deck with their heads held high about how they competed in the game,” Hocker said.

After going through several coaches over the past four years, Hocker said this year’s seniors were especially committed to the success of the team, making their CCS qualification even more meaningful.

“I’m really proud of the guys, they committed. I would say my approach is a lot different than any coaches they have experienced this year. They really committed to every single practice, every minute of what I wanted them to do, whether it’s 20 200s the first day of practice back in August, or countless days of just getting on the pool deck, jumping in, doing one hundred and going about our business,” Hocker said. “They committed, and they gave it their best effort.”