Marcel Montemayor ’23 scored three goals in the first six minutes of the game against St. John’s Prep on Wednesday, helping Andover Boys Water Polo secure a dominant 16-3 victory on the road after a close 10-12 loss against Williston Northampton on Saturday. The team’s record now stands at 4-3.
Trey Wolfe ’23 says that despite the loss to Williston, the team is proud to have played a competitive game against such a strong team of Williston’s caliber.
Wolfe said, “They were organised, but… we stood up to the challenge, I think. We still played our game last weekend and… even though we lost last weekend, coming that close to beating a team that good, it means a lot.”
According to Theodore Kim ’23, one player in the team who kept the team going after a loss against Williston to beat the Prep was Montemayor, whose energy both in and out of the pool inspires positivity in the team.
“I think one… person that really kept our spirits up [is] Marcel. He’s just a really good team player, he’s really been like a really positive source [of energy], and you know, on the bus rides, he always sings the loudest, things like that. All the little things get everyone excited,” said Kim.
Kim added, “He’s kind of like the team leader. Obviously, we have our seniors, we have our captains, but Marcel… brings joy to the team. After we lose a game, he’s always there, encouraging everybody.”
According to Montemayor, he tries to show the team that hard work can surpass the talent that one starts with.
“I think the way that I try to motivate people, especially because we have such a big team and there’s always people coming in with not a lot of experience playing water polo, is telling them that it’s not where you start, it’s what you do in the moment, it’s all about trying to put the work in and effort,” said Montemayor.
Between the loss on Saturday and the victory on Wednesday, the team worked on defensive strategies, specifically ‘crashing on the hole’, according to Nicholas Donaldson ’23.
“We have very good offensive players from the get-go, but our defence needed a bit more coordination, and Coach Hurley emphasised that I think in training. We worked on crashing on the hole specifically, that’s a play in water polo where the main guy up front for the other team just basically gets clobbered in the centre, and we just shut him down, and I feel like that helped us a lot, because St. John’s barely scored,” said Donaldson.
The difference in mindset when playing both teams was that the team was more aggressive in its win against the Prep, but was more timid and conservative when playing Williston, according to Montemayor.
“Coming in and playing against a team that is really good, at that point, we [had] the mentality of trying not to lose, or trying not to embarrass ourselves. Whereas in this situation that we had today, it was more of trying to win because we came off such a tough loss… like, we have to win this game, we have to come back and get back on track,” said Montemayor.
Andover Boys Water Polo will host Choate in its upcoming game this Saturday.
