Hood River Valley girls water polo advances to state

HOOD RIVER — The Hood River Valley High Eagles Class 5A boys and girls water polo teams both concluded their regular seasons last week – the boys squad with a playoff loss, the girls with a state play-in game victory.

The Eagle boys squad, guided by second-year Coach Cael Price, finished in fifth place in the six-team Central League standings with a 1-3 record (5-18 overall). The Eagles qualified for a Nov. 8 state playoff road game, and they lost, 12-6, to the Bend High Lava Bears (10-11) to conclude the season.

“We had a super competitive game Oct. 25 against Bend, and we fought back from a 6-0 first quarter deficit to make it close at the end,” said Price. “We had hoped to have a better start in Saturday’s playoff game, which we did, and we were down just 1-0 at the end of the first quarter. I was super impressed with our defense.

“Unfortunately, our offense wasn’t clicking the way it should be and we didn’t get as many shots off as we should have.”

For the young Eagles’ squad (four freshmen, eight sophomores), the playoff contest marked the final game of the water polo career of seniors Liam Williams, Moshe Tsypin and first-year player Felipe Mendez. The Eagles lost nine graduated seniors from their 2024 squad. Price said that he expected this season to be kind of a challenging year while competing against more experienced teams.

“In water polo, the size and experience of teams plays a really big role in how the games end up and it really was a rebuilding year for us,” said Price. “Our goal this year was to just do the best that we could. We’re going to miss the seniors a lot, especially our goalkeeper Liam, who played a super important position for us. It’s a highly skilled position and he played on our team three years, and we’ll really miss his experience.”

Tsypin was a team captain who played on the Eagles squad for four years. Mendez, a member of the Eagle swim team, joined the water polo team midway through the season, playing the sport for the first time ever.

After winning three consecutive girls Class 5A titles, the defending state champion Hood River Valley Eagles were in rebuild mode this season, but they qualified for a state play-in game, which they won against Ashland. The Eagles (2-7 league, 5-21 overall), guided by 11th-year Coach Kellie Dunn, concluded the regular season with a 5-4 loss on Oct. 28 to the Grant High Generals (3-5-1) in a Mt. Hood Conference game in Portland.

HRV beat Ashland at home in a state play-in game and will compete in the state tournament starting with a 7:10 p.m. game Nov. 14 against Summit at Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center in Beaverton.