For the last couple of years, the Los Gatos High girls water polo team had an embarrassment of riches at the goalie position with Jackie King and Lucy Holland.
The duo have since moved on to play at the Division I level, King to Stanford and Holland to UC Davis. Conventional wisdom says the Wildcats will be markedly weaker in the cage this season.
Not so fast.
In junior Rachel Stephens, Los Gatos has someone who is more than capable of getting the job done.
“Rachel has done a tremendous amount of work to become a really good goalie already,” Wildcats coach Don Appleton said. “Lucy spent the whole off-season training Rachel and doing a lot of extra work with her. Everyone is thinking we’ll be softer in the cage than in years’ past, and obviously there will be a little dropoff because Rachel is younger and a little more new at the position, but I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people in how solid we’ll be between the pipes.”
After a tremendous 2021 season that saw Los Gatos finish 25-3 and advance to the Central Coast Section’s premier Open Division playoffs, Appleton once again is putting a huge emphasis on defense—and with good reason.
All of the top-tier teams in water polo at any level have one thing in common: they play great defense. If the Wildcats are going to repeat as Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division champions, they’ll need to be rock-solid defensively as they were a year ago.
“That’s all we’ve been doing in the first couple of weeks of practice is defense,” Appleton said. “Defense is one of the things you have to love, and it can definitely be taught. You can teach everyone defensive concepts. With (great) offense, a lot of that comes with athleticism, so athletic kids are always going to find ways to score. But defense can be taught and it comes with effort.”
Even though the Wildcats graduated some standout players, they return some key talents including Karly Frangieh, Maily Isaacs, Karissa Elliott and Lily van Putten. A junior utility and returning all league first team selection, Frangieh is the fastest player on the team and perhaps in the entire SCVAL.
She competed in the CIF State Swimming Championships in May after finishing in seventh place in both the 100- and 200-yard freestyle events in the CCS Finals. At State, Frangieh also was a member of Los Gatos’ 200- and 400-free relay teams, with van Putten also on the 200 relay.
With fast swimmers like Frangieh and van Putten, the Wildcats should have an advantage on swim-offs and off the counterattack.
“We’re banking on Karly scoring some counter goals and helping us out on defense as well,” Appleton said.
Van Putten is projected to have a strong senior season—particularly on the goal-scoring side—after working diligently in the off-season against top-notch competition.
“Lily played in a bunch of showcases, and played in Europe a little and got a lot of good experience,” Appleton said. “It’s going to be really interesting to see how she does because she has the potential to take over some games. It’s going to be a matter of putting all the pieces together and giving her the space to be a standout player, but also playing with the rest of the group as well.”
It was quite a summer for van Putten, who spent a week in Italy training with water polo great Tony Azevedo and another week in Croatia training Maggie Steffens – another water polo great. A standout performance in a Salt Lake City showcase got van Putten invited to compete in the 6-8 sports showcase in Long Beach.
In addition, van Putten was on a club team that placed 18th at the Junior Olympics. Isaacs is another player who did a ton of work in the off-season and has developed in nearly every phase of the game.
“Maily has gotten really strong and it’s going to be fun to see how she progresses throughout the season,” Appleton said. “She has the potential to be one of the stronger centers in the section this year.”
Another standout senior, Elliott, was all league honorable mention last year, which essentially represents the second team since there are only two De Anza Division all league teams for water polo. A junior center defender, Elliott looks to have another productive season.
“Karissa will stand out more so than in the past,” Appleton said. “Last year she was a defensive standout while building her stats and contributing in a real quiet way. I think she’ll be a lot more noticeable this year.”
Appleton refrains from making projections on how far a team can go this early in the season, but he definitely sees a lot of upside.
“I think we’ve got the pieces and the potential to have a pretty strong season,” he said. “We definitely have the potential to have a really good run this year.”
Sports editor Emanuel Lee can be reached at el**@we*****.com
