Paly boys’ varsity water polo players are celebrating their first home game win against Monta Vista.

On Wednesday, September 20, the Vikings played their first home game and their first water polo game ever played in the new pool at Paly. The team was victorious with a score of 11-6.

"We won our opener unlike Stanford," junior Geng Wang said, referring to Stanford’s loss against Navy on Saturday, September 16.

Junior Neal Ketchum scored two goals and sophomore Tim Wenzlau scored six.

According to Wenzlau, his successful shots were not made by any apparent reason, yet he commented on the victories of the team as a whole.

"Our team has surprised us at how well we’re doing," Wenzlau said. "We did really well the first tournament."

According to Wang, the team had also been practicing left-handed shots, which may have contributed to the team’s winning score.

Ketchum was also modest about his performance.

"I’ve played better in past games," Ketchum said. "I played a better defense than offense this game."

Coach Reid Particelli was also celebrant yet critical with his view on the game.

"It was a good game," Particelli said. "[But] it could have been better. We had starting problems."

The beginning of the game was nerve-racking with a close score of 2-1 at the end of the first quarter.

"We came out too soft," Wang said. "We expected to steam roll this team. At half-time we were more amped."

Junior Michael Fortune agreed that the team performed during the second half.

"We started playing more as a team." Fortune said.

Yet the team knows what they need to improve on to continue excelling.

"We need to focus more on defense," Ketchum said. "And playing as a team and not making stupid mistakes."

"At the beginning, it was even," Wang said. "Later you could say that we dominated, but we could have done better."

The team may feel like they could have performed better in this game, but they are very confident that the next game against city rival Gunn will be an easy win.

"We’re going to kill Gunn because we’ve heard that they lack experience," senior Adam Whitfield said.

"We’re going to come out strong," Wang said. "A lot of their players graduated."

Paly is scheduled to play Gunn at the Paly pool at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, 27.