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Dexter water polo loses their game against Skyline and a key player
By Heather Brouwer
With three seconds left in the game, the boys’ varsity water polo team had time to make one more play in its game against Ann Arbor Skyline. Freshman Sam Sterlitz got the ball at half pool and made a quick pass over to senior Drew Golin, who flicked it over to junior Grisha Griffiths who was right in front of the goal. Griffiths proceeded to shoot and score right before the buzzer ended the game.
This final goal was unable to win the Dreads the game, as the final score was 16-5.
The team had high hopes for the game; however, on Friday, September 15, one of Dexter’s key players, senior Stephen Sterlitz, broke his wrist and was ruled out for the rest of the season.
“I had surgery on Friday, September 22 and am now a proud owner of a titanium screw in my scaphoid,” Sterlitz said.
Griffiths commented: “Skyline has a deeper bench, an older team, and more experienced guys. Losing one of our key speakers and primary set didn’t help.”
In addition to losing Sterlitz, several of the people on Dexter’s team were sick including Griffiths and sophomore Luke Sayler.
These obstacles forced several players including junior Henry Gaetino, sophomore Mitchell Sterlitz, senior Drew Golin, and sophomore Paul Schaefer, to play almost the entire game.
Despite losing Stephen Sterlitz, other players were able to step up in the game to prevent a shutout. The loss wasn’t due to a lack of effort on Dexter’s part. Dexter had a total of 20 shots on goal during the game and all five goals were scored by Griffiths.
“Guys like Mitchell, who played a majority of the game, were fatigued and some of other guys were locked off by Skyline’s best players,” Griffiths said. “I just got more rest than the other guys because I was sick, and when I was in, I got mismatches and other opportunities that I was able to capitalize on.”
Sayler added: “We didn’t shut down their good players early on, and we didn’t start scoring until it was too late in the game.”
Dexter plays Skyline again on October 11 and the team is hoping to have an improved performance.
“I think we will be able to anticipate who the threats are next time and at least make it a closer game,” Sayler said.
The team still has high hopes for the rest of the season too. On September 23, Dexter competed in a district seeding tournament where it beat Saline and Walled Lake and lost to Ann Arbor Huron putting them in 3rd for their district and 10th in the state. The team still has its sights set on making it all the way to the state tournament and doing better than its fifth-place finish last year.
“Going forward we need to have increased intensity, and some of the newer guys on the team are going to have to step up,” Griffiths said. “I think we can do it!”
