Highly-ranked Northwood water polo team looks to make a run at PCL title

Northwood’s girls water polo team which head coach Kyle Kim-E (right) and assistant coach Steve Sellwood. (Photos courtesy Alexei Tolkachev).

Northwood High School’s girls water polo team has had one of its best seasons in school history so far, posting a 13-4 overall record and 3-1 mark in the Pacific Coast League. The Timberwolves are ranked No. 5 in this week’s CIF Division 4 poll released Tuesday.

The Timberwolves have been led by senior Yoshi Elseifi who has 120 goals, 20 assists, 52 steals and 45 ejections drawn through 17 games.

Among the team’s highlights this year was a 7-4 victory over Woodbridge, a Division 2 team.

“Since our league championship in 2020, Woodbridge has been dominating the league for the last few years so it was really nice to get the win over a very tough and well-coached Woodbridge team,” said Northwood Coach Kyle Kim-E. “It was a testament to all of our girls’ hard work and effort this past year.”

A number of other players have also stepped up for Northwood. 

“One of our unexpected blessings has been the addition of freshman Cassidy McCallon who started water polo this past summer with us,” Kim-E said. “Under our goalie coach Lauryn Bernal’s guidance, Cassidy has unbelievably improved since the summer and has since earned the starting varsity spot. She had 10 critical saves against Woodbridge, which should hopefully give her a confidence boost and the inner-realization of how much she has improved over a short few months. We are all very proud of her and she has played a vital role in our team’s success this year.

“Another unexpected blessing was the addition of junior Audrey Mariano. She is one of our co-captains with Yoshi this year. Audrey actually played with us during the summer going into her freshman year before deciding on attending a private school. While we were of course bummed, we also completely understood and respected her decision. With that being said though, we’re thrilled to have Audrey back with us and since she has been eligible in January, she has completely changed the dynamics of our team on both ends of the pool.”

The team as a whole is fairly young, Kim-E said. 

“On varsity, we also had a nice freshman addition in Riddhi Gautam who plays at the local North Irvine Water Polo Club and is a starter for our varsity team. We also have a couple of juniors that are having breakout years in Tiara Schechinger and Nina Elias.

“Tiara is one of our fastest players, while Nina is our primary set guard and is one of the strongest players we have. We have also recently brought up sophomore Jane Thorpe from JV to varsity, who has been improving a lot.

“To round out our varsity team, we also heavily rely on the leadership of our other seniors: Rachel Yokota, Samin Shahrabian and Emma McDowell. These three have been through the ups and downs of our program over the past few seasons and without their senior leadership both in and out of the water, I know that we do not have as successful of a season. I appreciate everything they do for our program.”

Kim-E said he is proud and excited about the team’s prospects the rest of the season. 

“I have been coaching long enough, however, to know that all it takes is one bad game to change the course of a season and that we cannot rely on the power ratings otherwise we could underestimate a bunch of teams,” he said.

“So, right now, we are focusing on fine-tuning our physical and mental mistakes and trying to remain as consistent as possible. Our end goal is to try and win a league championship and to also make a run for it in CIF (playoffs).

“We all know how competitive the Pacific Coast League is and after a (13-3) loss to Beckman on Monday, we have a bunch of things to work on in order to try and win the league championship but I truly think both are achievable, but it will take another month of perseverance and resilience to achieve those goals. If there is anything I know about these girls, I know that they are up to the challenge.”

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