As the early-season results have indicated, the Greenwich High School girls water polo team is well on its way to continuing its spectacular tradition – one that’s featured a wealth of winning moments.

Tuesday’s triumph against town rival Greenwich Aquatics raised the Cardinals record to 3-0, heading into today’s ultra-competitive high school tournament in Chicago, Illinois – an event the team eagerly anticipated. Coached by Jimmy Ramaley, the Cardinals are coming off a season in which it earned a record of 12-0, posting their third consecutive undefeated season.

“We have a little bit of a different team after losing six seniors from last year,” Ramaley said. “But last year we had a huge freshman class, that has now turned into a really strong sophomore class. So, they are filling the roles of some of the strong seniors.”

Among the strong seniors Ramaley referred to are captains Ashley Hopper and Olivia Hopper. The duo are talented twin sisters.

“I think we’re doing really good so far,” Olivia Hopper said. “Our team is the majority sophomores and underclassmen, so I think that being said, we’re still able to be a unified team.”

“We’re all working together, having fun and dominating these games a good amount,” Olivia Hopper continued. “It’s nice having the less experienced players learning the game and just having a great time.”

In Tuesday’s home matchup against Greenwich Aquatics, also a formidable team, Greenwich High posted a 21-12 win, displaying its strengths throughout the game.

“We knew this was going to be one of our harder games,” said Ashley Hopper, who like Olivia, is in her fourth season on the squad. “I think the first quarter we started out a little bit slow, but as the game went on, we turned it on and came out with a win. We stepped it up in the second and third quarter and got the win.”

The victory versus Greenwich Aquatics saw the Cardinals get four goals and one assist from Ashley Hopper, four goals from Sophia Ojjeh, four goals and one assist from Julia Gustafsson and three goals and one assist from Kaleigh Murphy. Olivia Hopper also converted a pair of shots for goals to help power the winning effort.

“A lot of us at Greenwich High School play with players from Greenwich Aquatics with our club team, so we knew it was going to be a competitive game and we had to step up,” Olivia Hopper noted. “We stepped up to the challenge, focused, got the counter attacks and got the ball in the goal.”

Gustafsson started the scoring for GHS in its game against Greenwich Aquatics, converting a perimeter shot with 5:48 remaining in the first quarter. Olivia Hopper scored at the 5:10 mark of the first quarter, then tallied off a steal, making it 3-0 midway through the opening quarter.

After Greenwich Aquatics notched a goal, Murphy tallied and Gustaffson added another goal, giving the Cardinals a 5-1 advantage with 1:05 to go in the first quarter.

The Cards took a 10-3 lead on Greenwich Aquatics into halftime, then continued to create scoring chances in the second half, behind stellar passing and ball movement.

Shea Morris recorded one goal and one assist, Lily Norton also had one goal and one assist, Ainsley Sarhbeck assisted on two goals, while Sofie Wang and Addie Shaw each had one assist for Greenwich (3-0).

Wang is among some of the squad’s experienced seniors.

“Sofie Wang returns after a year abroad,” Ramaley noted. “She is an amazing swimmer and she fills a big role. She’s super-fast, strong and a super defender inside. Sofie is going to be of our leading goal scorers.”

So will Gustafsson, who was second on the team in goal-scoring one season ago. Her sister, Emma, led the Cards in the goal-scoring department in 2023 and is continuing her water polo career at the University of Michigan. CJ Weigel, served as a team captain, along with Emma Gustafsson last season and is playing water polo at Princeton University, where she is a goalie.

“It’s looking really good, we have a lot of strong players and we have a lot of new players and our team culture has been amazing so far,” Julia Gustafsson said. “It’s helping not only out of the water, but in the water too.”

“That was probably one of the best teams that we’re going to play against,” added sophomore Julia Gustafsson added. “Everyone stood up, did what they’re supposed to do and we just played really well.”

Ramaley knows the team has plenty of leadership with the Hopper sisters pacing the way.

“They are natural leaders, they do everything for us, whether it’s leading the team in warm-ups or practices,” Ramaley said of his captains. “They make practice and games fun and are among our leading offensive players.”

The Hopper sisters are both heading to Bucknell University, where they will also play water polo. There, they will join Bella Schraa, a 2022 Greenwich High School graduate, who earned All-America High School Water Polo honors, while competing for the Cardinals for four highly successful seasons.

“I am really excited to play with her,” Olivia Hopper said. “She (Schraa) will be a junior and I will be a freshman when I arrive there. I am excited for the next step. It’s really exciting and I’m happy to be playing on the same team with Ashley for another four years.”

Ashley Hopper is impressed with the improvement of the returning players and the potential of the first-season athletes on the GHS team.

“I think our team is very strong this year, we did lose a couple of our really good seniors, but our team has a lot of chemistry, because we’re so close knit,” she said. “We do have a lot of underclassmen, but they still have risen up to the occasion, playing against older girls from GA and Greenwich Aquatics.”

As for the experience of being one of the captains?

“It definitely feels like there’s a lot of responsibility, especially since our team has a lot of underclassmen, but it feels good to be the leader after being on the team for four years and help lead our team,” Ashley Hopper said.

Norah Mendelsohn is Greenwich’s starting goalie. Mendelsohn has flourished in goal thus far and in Tuesday’s game versus Greenwich Aquatics, she filled the stat sheet, compiling 11 saves, six assists and three steals. Her outlet passes and long passes, helped spark the Cards’ offense.

Tess Furno, Natalia, Maeve Donat, Sofia Adams, Gigi Peck and Ellison Charette should also make their mark on the successful Greenwich team.

“This team has helped show me team spirit and how bonding with the team can translate into the games,” Ashley Hopper said. “We have a lot of team dinners and team bonding – things we do outside the pool. When we come and we play all these different games, it shows how bonding with your team can help.”

On Thursday, the Cardinals arrived in Chicago for a road trip that features them playing in a high school tournament, which begins today.

“This year we have about 20 games, including the high school girls tournament this weekend in Chicago,” Ramaley noted. “That will be the first official girls tournament with a championship format that the girls have played in in about a decade. We’ve had tournaments, but not really a winner’s format.”

The tournament in Chicago includes 12 teams.

“This will be good competition for us,” Ashley Hopper said. “It will be a good tournament for us to go to and show off our team. Our team has a lot of potential. We can definitely win the entire thing, which will be the goal.”

Said Julia Gustaffson: “We are playing against other good high school teams that we haven’t played against, so it should be fun. “Our team has a lot of strengths. We have a lot of offensive players, who can shoot and score and a lot of speed, so it’s easy to counter.”

As always, the Cardinals have set the bar high for themselves this spring.

“We would like to go undefeated again and since we have a big tournament, I’m really excited to lead this team into a very exciting tournament and hopefully, come out on top,” Olivia Hopper said.

“Our team has a lot of potential,” Ashley Hopper added. “We can definitely win the entire thing, which will be the goal. We would like to have another undefeated season for the fourth year in a row and we have a lot of potential to be good this year.”