Last week the Varsity Girls Water Polo team played Oakridge. During the game, goalie Hannah Lucho was injured, and has been out for the past week.

“They (the Oakridge players) pulled me under and then I felt someone’s elbow hit me hard in the chest. That was the first real aggressive action of the game. Everyone was just kind of surprised. We also only had one reff when we are suppose to have two,” said junior Hannah Lucho.

It took Lucho off guard, but she was able to keep playing.

“We continued playing and I could see they were being more aggressive than usual. Then the last 15 seconds of the game one of the players came up to me because I had gotten the ball. She kept going after me and the reff wasn’t calling it, and she ended up kneeing me in the hip.”

Hannah went to the doctor and they told her she had contusions in both her sternum and hip. Contusions are damaged tissue where blood capillaries have been ruptured. In other words, she had really bad bruises. She was in a wheelchair last week, and luckily is able to walk this week.

Being down a reff during this game seemed to allow for more aggression than usual. With only one set of eyes, rather than two, the reff probably wasn’t able to see everything that was happening.

Now without a goalie, senior Kate Johnson has had to fill in the spot. Kate is originally the teams “Set D”. Her position is in charge of guarding the center of the pool and getting the ball up to the offensive players.

“Goalie is a completely different mindset than being a field player. It’s been hard to transition to that. The hardest transition is I can use two hands now instead of one,” said Kate.

Kate has done a great job filling in for Hannah, but it has hurt the team not having her as a field player.

Senior Paige Matthews said, “She’s (kate) done a great job being goalie but its really hurt our team. It’s been a hard transition because she was was such a good field player. We’ve been missing her on defensive. I think choosing her to fill Lucho’s shoes was the best decision we could’ve made cause she’s done a really good job.”

Kate has done a great job filling the shoes of goalie, but they definitely have been missing Hannah. The only thing Lucho can do to heal is to rest and give herself a break from Water Polo. She should be able to start playing again next week.