Kairui Sun

Point and set D Aman Chandra (12) hurls a shot from deep, skipping it into the bottom right corner for a 14-5 lead halfway through the third quarter. In addition to this goal, Aman racked up several steals by disrupting Palo Alto’s offense in the set.

Varsity boys water polo routed the Palo Alto High School Vikings 17-9 during senior night on Thursday at the Singh Aquatic Center.

Before the game, the team presented seniors Aman Chandra, Alejandro Cheline, Jayden Rodriguez and Terry Xie with bouquets. After the game, players, parents, and coaching staff huddled outside the Aquatic Center where the seniors spoke about their past four years of water polo.

“Water polo’s probably been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made coming into high school,” Jayden said. “It’s such a good team. You can’t build such a close bond in any other team compared to water polo with the amount of time we spend, close to each other, guarding each other, swimming with each other. It’s phenomenal—we have such great camaraderie, and I’m gonna really miss it.”

Aman added how the team’s camaraderie manifested in persevering through difficulties, like staying to clean up the pool on cold nights and maintaining focus in the locker room.

“We hope we’ve set a good example for the underclassmen,” Aman said. “We hope we’ve shown the team that one of the biggest parts to water polo is having fun when playing, yes, but equally so, it’s our discipline, our teamwork and our perseverance that gets us as far as we can.”

The Vikings opened the game with a shot clanging off the right bar. Collecting the rebound, set D and point Akash Dubey (11) drove within five meters to the Palo Alto goal and drew a foul, resulting in a penalty opportunity for the Eagles. Jayden skipped the ball into the top right corner, bringing the score to 1-0. 

On the very next possession, Alejandro blocked a Viking shot and lobbed it far downfield to perimeter player Ian Cheline (11), who converted for a 2-0 lead. Ian continued to impact both ends of the game throughout the quarter, stealing the ball and passing to wing Ossi Carrico (10) for a 3-0 lead.

After Harker’s starters scored two more goals against Palo Alto’s defense, Terry and Aman checked into the game with 5:10 left in the quarter. Since both seniors play defend the set, the Eagles opted to run a four-out, two-in defense where both Terry and Aman stayed close to the goal while four perimeter players rotated as fit. While the Eagles adjusted to the new defensive scheme, Palo Alto scored their first goal to make the score 5-1 with 3:51 remaining. 

During Palo Alto’s subsequent possession, Aman forced a steal which Alejandro snatched up. He passed downfield to Ossi, who recovered his own blocked shot and scored off the crossbar to increase the Eagles’ lead to 6-1.

Playing offense on the wing, Terry drove to within 7 meters of the Viking goal and skipped the ball off the water for a goal. Perimeter player David Kelly (11) then lobbed a shot over the distracted Palo Alto goalie for an 8-1 lead to end the first quarter.

“The boys communicate well together,” Akash’s father Tushar Dubey said. “They take defensive direction from Alejandro well. Alejandro’s very vocal. They set up in the formations that Coach [Lee McBride] wanted them to set up in, and executed on everything well.”

The Eagles carried their momentum into the second quarter. One minute in, Ossi, Ian and Akash improvised off a broken play after players failed to get open for passes. With 5 seconds on the shot clock, Ossi scored off the crossbar around three defenders to bring the Eagles up 10-1.

The next Palo Alto possession, Akash was ejected, resulting in a six-on-five power play for the Vikings. However, set Aden Liu (10) and Alejandro worked together to stifle the Vikings’ attack. Throughout the second quarter, Alejandro recorded four blocks on six Viking shot attempts to keep the Eagles ahead 11-3.

Ian won the sprint for the ball at the start of the third quarter and immediately passed it off to Akash. With 6 seconds on the clock, he found Ian who hurled a sidearm shot into the net. Ian scored again on a five-on-four fast break to extend the lead to 13-3 less than a minute into the quarter.

Harker called a timeout with 4:10 in the quarter, where the team adjusted their plays to set up Aman for his first goal of the game. After his first two shots were blocked, Aman caught a pass in set, turned and skipped it into the bottom right corner to make the score 14-5.

“Today was a day to have fun, to celebrate our time here, and to try to get every senior that one last goal,” Jayden said. “You can see us driving in and making little strategies on the spot to get people front and center and get that last little opportunity.”

In the fourth quarter, Luka Degoricija (11) started as the Eagles’ goalie as Alejandro switched to a field position. Luka made an instant impact: 55 seconds into the quarter, he blocked a shot by a Viking wing attacker despite two pump fakes. Luka then aired out a pass to Alejandro, who missed the shot, grabbed his own rebound and muscled past the Palo Alto goalie for a 15-5 lead.

With 2:07 remaining, a Harker penalty awarded Palo Alto a penalty shot. Luka lunged to the right and saved the shot for his second block of the quarter. Palo Alto continued to pressure Harker’s defense, scoring multiple times to shrink the lead to 15-9.

Terry fired a pass within 2 meters of the Palo Alto goal with 45 seconds left for Alejandro, who collected the ball and spun for a backhand goal to seal the game at 17-9.

The team holds a 15-7 record and will compete at the SCVAL tournament this week to fight for a CCS seed. They play Los Altos High School away on Thursday in the semifinals.

Gallery • 3 Photos

Kairui Sun

Junior Pascal Qin and senior Celina Xu cheer for senior Aman Chandra as he swims down the pool with the ball. "My favorite part about today's game was just the energy from the crowd and from the bench," Aman said.