Colleen Woo (l) and Talie Wilmans. Photo credit: Jennifer Godwin-Minto(r) By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor It could be said that Poly had two parts to their championship season. The Panthers earned a co-Prep League championship and then went on to win the CIF-Southern Section Division 5 championships by defeating Xavier Prep, 10-5, back on Feb. […]
Colleen Woo (l) and Talie Wilmans. Photo credit: Jennifer Godwin-Minto(r)
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
It could be said that Poly had two parts to their championship season.
The Panthers earned a co-Prep League championship and then went on to win the CIF-Southern Section Division 5 championships by defeating Xavier Prep, 10-5, back on Feb. 25 at the William Woollett Aquatics Center in Irvine.
The path to the school’s second CIF championship in girls water polo saw a freshman lead the way until she got sick and the Panthers then needed a senior to step up and lead.
Talie Wilmans carried much of the scoring load until she became ill and missed six games.
Poly lost three of their five losses this season over that period of time.
In her absence, senior Colleen Woo became the primary scorer and many other players found themselves with more significant roles.
When Wilmans came back, she was able to blend in with Woo and the rest of her teammates and Poly became a more versatile unit than they were earlier in the season.
Wilmans finished with a team-best 104 goals and added 60 assists and 94 steals.
Woo was second in scoring with 95 goals and was first in assists with 67 and steals (116).
For their equally impressive performances in leading Poly to a CIF Division 5 championships, Wilmans and Woo have been named the Pasadena Sports Now Girls Water Polo Players of the Year.
“One thing we lacked last season was offensive firepower,” Poly coach Ryan Katsuyama said. “Talie gave us some much needed offense this season, providing us with a dangerous shooter who could score in a variety of ways – near side skip shots, cross cage hard shots to the corners, soft lob shots if the goalie strayed out too far, bad angle shots that only she could score on or backhands, sweep shots or roll out shots from set.
You name it, we saw it from Talie this season and her wide range of shots made it difficult for goalies to get a read on her. Not only was she a great goal scorer, but she was a great passer as well and a strong one-on-one defender when we pressed. So many teams were focused on double teaming her that she had a unique ability to find the open player and hit them with a perfect pass.”
Wilmans is a club player, and she more than lived up to what some might consider almost unfair expectations of a freshman.
Wilmans had 13 games with at least 5 goals, and 10 games with at least 3 assists.
She had half of Poly’s goals in the championship game victory over Xavier Prep, and 11 total goals in the four postseason victories.
“Being able to play club water polo has conditioned me both mentally and physically to be able to handle the competitive aspect of the sport,” Wilmans said. “Confidence is also extremely important when playing any sport, and I tried to be confident every time I got in the water.
When we played in our first non-league tournament, I realized that this season was going to be special. During the tournament we played against opponents that were ranked in the divisions above us, but our team responded well and held our own against these opponents.
During the CIF rounds, I felt as if my main responsibility was to encourage everyone around me to make them know we would win, because believing is the first step in doing, and secondly, do all that I can to get my team on the scoreboard and keep the other team off.”
Wilmans was first-team all-Prep League and first-team all-CIF Division 5.
Woo earned the Prep League co-Player of the Year and the CIF Division 5 Player of the Year.
She equaled her freshman teammate with 11 postseason goals, including 6 goals in the 13-4 playoff victory over Cypress in the first round.
Perhaps Woo’s most valuable trait was how she took over the scoring duty in Wilman’s six-game absense.
The senior stepped up when needed the most, and continued her solid and dominating play throughout the rest of the season, including the playoffs.
Woo had 11 games with at least four goals and 12 games with three assists or more.
“Throughout the season, our focus has been on defense, figuring that stops on defense will create opportunities for us in our transition offense. Colleen was a key part of that defensive process, which involved her marking up (usually) against the best player from the opposing team,” Katsuyama said. “Her ability to read plays and jump into passing lanes was second-to-none on our team. She was also a great passer and ball handler on the offensive end of the pool and proved, throughout her career, that she could score goals as well. This made her a great all around player and someone we can’t replace in our lineup.”
In her remarkable career, Woo scored a total of 210 goals from her sophomore year and was part of two CIF championship teams.
Said Katsuyama: “Colleen and Talie together – they formed an amazing 1-2 combination that was difficult for teams to defend…Talie drew several double and triple teams, yet despite that defensive pressure, she was still able to score…5 goals in the championship game (out of our 10 overall goals)…3 goals in the semifinal game (out of our 6 total goals)…Talie added a great deal of offense to our team this year and that was a big reason why we were able to power our way to a co-Prep League championship and a CIF Championship.”
As much credit as Wilmans and Woo rightfully get for a co-Prep League title and a CIF-SS Division 5 championship, they’d be the first to tell you that none of this was possible without the contributions of every member on the Poly roster.
Their teammates include: Kat Polyzoides, Kate McInerny, Kate Penner, Natalie Clark, Kelly Gallagher, Megan Kelleher, Kate Fogassa, Lily Maechling, Lucy Harvey, Morgan Shafia, Olive O’Beirne, Ella Cornwell, Taylor Stimmler, Harper Oreck, Shaya Naimi, Bea Van der Velde-Kraft and Sofia Ceva.
