Water polo continues to grow in popularity and in terms of skill level in the town of Greenwich, which features talented teams in all of its high schools. On Tuesday, Greenwich High School, an experienced team which has established itself as one of the premier teams in the region, hosted Sacred Heart Greenwich, a newer program that’s steadily becoming a strong, cohesive squad.

Coming off a successful road trip to Chicago, where they won all four games in a tournament they competed in, the Cardinals kept their perfect record intact, topping the visiting Tigers of Sacred Heart Greenwich, 20-10.

Junior Sophia Ojjeh paced the Cardinals’ defense against the Tigers, scoring a team-high five goals.

“I thought it was a good opportunity for our whole team to play as a cohesive unit,” Ojjeh said of Tuesday’s victory. “We were able to get everyone in the water and we got a variety of goals from different players.”

Sophomore Julia Gustafsson recorded four goals and one assist, while Kaleigh Murphy recorded two goals and two assists and Lily Norton tallied twice for Greenwich, which raised its record to 4-0.

Cardinals goalie Norah Mendelsohn made 11 saves, while adding four assists and two steals. Teammate Shea Morris made three saves in goal in the winning effort.

“I thought we did great today, I’m super proud of our newer players,” said Mendelsohn, a sophomore. “We have a couple of players who had never played water polo before this season and two of them got their first goal today.”

The players scoring their first career goal that Mendelsohn referred to were Tess Furno and Maeve Donat, who had one goal apiece for the victors.

Sacred Heart was sparked by Annika Wise, who has been the squad’s leading goal scorer through its first several games. Wise scored the majority of the Tigers’ goals against the Cardinals, displaying her shooting touch and playmaking ability.

“It’s still really early in our season and a lot of our players have never played before, it the first, second time they’ve played,” Wise noted. “I think since our last game I have seen so much improvement in every player. Even though we didn’t end up winning, that doesn’t really measure how well we played, because we’re a new team.”

Maggie Wilson and Victoria Mordaunt were among some of the Sacred Heart players that were active offensively. Hunter Nigey was in goal for the Tigers, while Sophie Tobias paced the defensive effort.

“What I said to the girls at the beginning was this game was meant for learning,” SHG coach Gabriel Maldonado said. “Greenwich has a tradition of playing together for many years. So, our goal today was learning about this game. We have to keep working on playing better defense and better offense.”

“Annika is very good, she plays with us on Greenwich Aquatics as well,” Maldonado continued. “She has been the leader in goals for us every game.”

Addie Shaw, Mendelsohn, Ellison Charette and twins Ashley and Olivia Hopper tallied one goal apiece for the Cardinals. The Hopper sisters are senior captains. Ashley added two assists and three steals and Olivia also assisted on two goals in Tuesday’s triumph.

“We don’t participate in the preps school league, but from what I’ve seen Sacred Heart and Greenwich Academy should have a good game,” GHS coach Jimmy Ramaley noted. “I’m interested to see who is going to win that.”

Sacred Heart had a game on Wednesday, traveling to Hamden Hall Country Day School. The Tigers were victorious, 20-10.

“I’m excited for the season,” Wise said. “This game, (the Greenwich game), we did a way better job of getting back on defense.”

Sophie Wang posted two assists and had four steals, while Ainsley Sarhbeck assisted on two goals in the Cardinals’ victory versus the Tigers. Teammate Sofia Adams had one assist in the win.

Here’s a recap of Greenwich High’s winning road trip to Chicago, which saw them win all of its games. Coach Ramaley provided the winning recap.

The Greenwich High School girls water polo team traveled to Chicago for the first time in program history to participate in the Mike Murphy Memorial Tournament hosted by Fenwick High School. 

Their trip was a success as they went 4-0 on the weekend capping it off with a 16-9 win over defending state champions Stevenson High School. 

“Not many states around us have girls water polo in the spring so we wanted an opportunity to play in an all high school tournament,” Ramaley said. “Illinois has just under 80 girls varsity teams in the state, offering a wide range of competition. Most of the top teams in the area participated in this tournament.”

In its opening games, GHS defeated host Fenwick 13-3 and Whitney Young 16-7.

In the semifinal, the girls continued their dominance beating New Trier HS – a well-known swimming powerhouse – 14-3. Sophomore goalie Norah Mendelsohn had nine saves and two assists. 

In the championship against Stevenson, the Cards raced out to a 6-0 lead and never looked back. Gustafsson was everywhere once again filing the stat sheet with six goals, two assists, three steals, and three blocks. Sophomore Shea Morris registered a hattrick as did Ashley Hopper. Mendelsohn had another strong game with 10 saves including a penalty stop to end the game. 

Gustafsson totaled 19 goals, 11 assists, 13 steals and 5 blocks in the four games. 

“We had an amazing experience and it was fun to play different competition. Our team really enjoys being around each other and this was another great team bonding opportunity,” Ashley Hopper said.

Ojjeh described her experience in Chicago to Greenwich Sports Beat.

“In Chicago, we got to play a lot of different teams with different levels of competition than we have in Connecticut,” she said. “It was a good opportunity for us to play different teams and it was a good opportunity for more bonding.”

Mendelsohn also shared her experience from the road trip to the Windy City.

“We had an amazing time, it was super fun to bond with the team,” Mendelsohn said. “Our car rides everywhere, rooming with the girls was super fun. We improved overall as the team. In just a few short weeks, our communication, our passing – it’s just getting better and I think our Chicago trip helped.”

The Cardinals are on the road again this weekend, as they will test their skills in an event in Annapolis, Maryland.

“Our goals are to keep going with our winning streak and have each player get better individually,” Mendelsohn noted.