Sports
7
p.
]Jan. 21, 2011 ]
Battle of the Boards
With the “wolf pack” now 3-0 in League, they are on the hunt for a league title for the first time in three years. by David Kawa
PHOTO BY CELESTE MANUGHIAN-PETER
Battling. Senior Allie Goldberg goes for a rebound in a game against West. The girls beat West 60-49 and are now 3-0 in league.
After watching tapes of earlier games, Enriquez created the program to cover the team’s weakness in rebounding. The team is now 5 - 0 in the Battle of the Boards. “After [watching the tapes], I made sure to make rebounding a focal point. It’s vital for our success and even more important than winning the game. Ninety percent of the time if we win that battle, we win the game. It’s no coincidence that we are now winning more games,” he said. The Pack is tailoring its practice to counter Palos Verdes’ defense. “We are working on taking down key players. We are going to have to be very aggressive with our press and hit the big shots,” Enriquez said. The team is always concerned with working towards the Bay League title. “No matter what it takes we have to find a way to win. We work too hard. We deserve that title,” Antar said. Keeping a level head, the Wolf Pack prepares for tonight’s game. “We go hard every practice. We can’t let this win get to us and take Palos Verdes lightly. We need to have the right mind-set and always play our hardest,” Park said.
A shot of confidence
Focused on improvement
Girls’ Polo plays Palos Verdes today, Last year’s League Champs
by Matthew Brancolini
The Redondo wrestling team lost to West Torrance last night in their first away Bay league dual-meet of the season. The Warriors beat Redondo 58-24. However the score was deceptively high, according to head coach Arond Schonberg. “I think we kind of surprised West. If you take out the 18 points we gave them because of having to forfeit weight classes, it was actually a lot closer than it seems,” Schonberg said. “ Last year, West came to our building and embarrassed us 72-6. Our goal was to score twenty this year and we hit that almost right on.” Junior Alex Anthony Maldonado attributes this success to a renewed interest in the wrestling program. “Last year we only scored six and this year we scored 24,” Maldonado said,” We’ve improved so much since then. We’ve brought in a lot more wrestlers. After my freshman year, the program was on the chopping block. The school wouldn’t pay for anything for us but now we’re a program on the rise.” According to junior Damon Guerrero, injuries are having a major effect on the team in a negative way. “Injuries are definitely hurting our team a lot. Every other week it seems like someone is going down with an ankle or a back injury or from sickness,” Guerrero said, “No one is suffering major injuries but every time a wrestler misses a match, it does cost the team points. But injuries are just part of sports in general.” The wrestlers believe that their new found success will bring their sport more attention from the Redondo student body. “I think more support from the fans would definitely positively affect the team. It would create a lot more positive and exciting atmosphere for the wrestlers,” Guerrero said. “We need more support for the team. The visiting team always has more fans than we do at our home meets. We especially need a lot more support for the Costa match next week,” Maldonado said. Schonberg believes that the Costa match may a great opportunity to get Redondo fans interested in wrestling. “The guys are definitely gearing up for Costa. It will probably come down to a couple of weight classes and it should be exciting. I hope a lot of Redondo kids drive down to Costa to see some entertaining and exciting matches,” Schonberg said. In general the team remains optimistic for the future. “We have a young team with a lot of discipline and talent and our younger guys are getting exponentially better” junior Nick Christy said, “I believe we have a bright future.” Guerrero added,” We have bigger and better guys than ever before. Within the next few years, possibly even next year, we’ll have a phenomenal team. “
Girl’s Basketball continued its winning streak by defeating West High 60 – 49 this Tuesday. The “pack” now has its sights on Palos Verdes tonight. According to junior Annie Park, the team wore West down with a steady determination. “We played hard and kept our composure. We could have lost at any given time, but we never gave up,” she said. Park scored 20 points off the bench. The Wolf Pack works together to highlight every player, according to coach Marcelo Enriquez. “That’s the great success of this team. We have enough talent that every girl has the capability to have a great offensive night and score a couple of buckets,” Enriquez said. The team focused on breaking West’s defense to gain the lead. “We broke their defense with fast breaks and being aggressive,” senior Ashiana Antar said. The team stayed consistent, but clinched the lead in the final quarter. “We were basically even with them the entire game, but in the fourth quarter, we
just picked up the intensity and ran with it,” senior Shayna Stuart said. Conditioning was the key to victory, according to Stuart. “We brought our press back and picked up the intensity. We are really strong mentally and physically, which helped us create a lot of turnovers,” Enriquez said. Park agrees. “They were really worn out and we took advantage of that for sure,” she said. The team is now 3 - 0 in League. According to Stuart, the team tackles every game with equal intensity. “We always play like there is nothing to lose,” she said. In addition to the “Wolf Pack” mentality, the team also stresses rebounding with “Battle of the Boards.” The team’s goal is to win the Battle of the Boards every game by picking up more rebounds than the opposition. Stuart feels that the system has encouraged a more aggressive strategy. “No defensive possession is ever done until we have secured the rebound. [Battle of the Boards] makes us more aggressive offensively because the more boards we have, the more possessions we have, and the more points we can score,” Stuart said.
by Julie Tran
PHOTO BY ASHLEY MAULDIN
Dialing in. Senior Emily Ewart takes a shot in a game against West. They play Palos Verdes today, who are undefeated.
Girls’ water polo recently won against one of their closest-matched competitors, Peninsula and are looking to take this momentum with them into their final bay league matches. According to senior Devon Cohen, all the girls are “stoked” to defeat Peninsula and are going into the game against Palos Verdes today with a new-found confidence. Head coach Danielle Berger and assistant coach Rob Baird always try to instill this sense of confidence in the girls to achieve their best and to go into every game with a winning attitude, according to Cohen. “We go into games saying ‘We will win’, regardless of the team we go up against,” Cohen said. “Among water polo teams, Pa-
los Verdes is a notorious powerhouse.” According to junior Tiffany Morales, although they do not stack up well to PV, they are aiming to earn third place spot behind Costa and PV, which they almost achieved last season. The new pool has “been helpful in the fight for third place.” “Now that we have a pool closer to home, we have more time to condition and swim,” Cohen said. “If anything, the intensity of every practice has increased.” Morales feels that in order to compete with the other teams in league, the increased intensity is necessary, especially if they expect to see significant improvement in speed and endurance. “We know we are going to have to step up our game to compete at PV’s level,” Morales said. “They are a very experienced team and we can’t wait to hopefully give them a run for their money.” According to Cohen, the team is working to eliminate their weaknesses and improve their offensive efficiency.
“We’d get lazy or too tired in the game at the most critical moments,” Cohen said. “When we really needed to push a little harder to win, we’d slip up- make a poor pass or get lethargic.” Berger feels that the team’s reaction time is slow and that, at times, players do not pay close enough attention to the opponent. However, the team will continue to play up its strengths. “PV has a lot of strong swimmers and well-trained water polo players who play club year-round, but I think we make up for its lack of counter offense with strong outside shooters,” Morales said. According to Berger, the team is focusing on defeating Peninsula for a second time for a CIF spot. “Personally, it’s my senior year and it’d be nice to make it to playoffs, but even better if we win CIF,” Cohen said. “We just really want to go out with a bang, and I speak for the entire team when I say that we can and will do it.”
Full steam ahead. 1. Junior Alex Matei looks on as junior Jeffrey Brandon dribbles during Tuesday’s game. 2. Nich Graham goes for a header against West. They lost 2-1 and are focusing on their game against PV today.
Pushing forward. Soccer focuses on the positives after losing to West this Tuesday. by Jessi Shipley
The Varsity Boys Soccer team lost, 2-1, against West this Tuesday. Although the team was particularly upset by this loss, they remain optimistic and confident for the rest of the season, according to senior Adam Anderson. “We need to be more focused and be confident that we can win and do our best but not get cocky,” senior captain Adam Anderson said. The players anguished over what could have been, but are also thinking about their next challenge. “We need to become more solid and take advantage of our scoring oppor-
tunities if we want to beat PV,” junior Alex Matei said. Several players on the team think that their overconfidence led to a lack of focus and hurt their preparation, but they are working on fixing that, according to senior Nich Graham. “We can beat any team if we really want to. It’s just a matter of us focusing and working well together,” Graham said. For their game today against Palos Verdes, the boys are determined to take a different approach. “Our heads need to be in the game and on the field — not on what’s going on outside the game,” junior Kris
PHOTO BY MEGAN GUERRA
Martin said. Although Palos Verdes is considered tough competition, the coach remains cautiously optimistic. “Every game is different—anything can happen—it can go either way,” Lopez said. The players remain optimistic about the season overall, hoping for a CIF berth. “We are going to work harder to work out the kinks. This year we have
more experience and more varsity returners. Our experience will help us get far,” Graham said. Anderson agrees, and is looking forward to the rest of the games this year. “This year is different. We are definitely going to change the mentality of the team to help us in the long run. We are going to put forth our best efforts and see how things turn out, but I can tell that we going to pull through and win in the end,” Anderson said.