2008 Varsity Water Polo
DeSmet @ Rec Plex
The Jr. Bills captured the championship of the DeSmet Invitational Tournament, the most competitive tournament of the season outside of the Missouri District Tournament, by controlling the host Spartans. Two solid but unspectacular quarters found SLUH ahead 6-3 at halftime, but a dominant 4-0 third quarter allowed SLUH to simply play keepaway for the final seven minutes. Tim Dale and John Heafner poured in 4 goals apiece, while defender Michael O’Neill filled every column of the stat sheet, with a goal, 2 assists, 6 steals, a ball under, and a field block. Tim and John were named to the All-Tournament Team, although O’Neill and William Page were selected as the team’s co-Most Valuable Players by the SLUH coaching staff.
More impressively, SLUH’s Varsity B team managed fifth place in the ten-team tournament. In the first half of play of their first game, the Jr. Bills played poorly and found themselves lagging behind DeSmet 11-2. But the second half welcomed a renewed squad, who ended with a respectable 14-9 loss to the second-ranked team in the area. SLUH B followed up with an 11-8 loss to fifth-ranked Marquette, a 10-4 win over Lafayette, a 9-7 win over MICDS (!), and a 9-7 win over fourth-ranked Lindbergh in the fifth place game. SLUH B was led by goalie Zak Ancel, who backstopped two of the three wins, and Steve Sigman, who scored a preposterous 30 of the team’s 45 goals.
Thus, SLUH can rightly boast having the first and fifth best Varsity teams in the state!
