Dallas, TX – Aug 1
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July 29th through August 1st the city of Dallas, TX played host to the 2021 Junior Olympics hosted by USA Water Polo. The tournament features top water polo teams from around the country vying for the title of national champion. Northwest took four teams to this year’s tournament including a 12u coed team, 14u boys team, 16u boys team and 18u girls team. During the four-day event every NWPC team played hard, culminating with a 2nd place platinum finish for the 16u boys, 11th place platinum result for the 18u girls, 12th place platinum ending for the 12u coed team and a 5th place gold placement for the 14u boys.  

Northwest 16u boys started off their 2021 Junior Olympic run with a stellar day one which included a 17-1 performance against Cowtown (Dallas, TX) before moving on to best Southside 16-4 (Houston, TX). Day two saw the boys matched up against Washington State rival Rain City (Bellevue, WA) and the team put together a dominant 17-6 win before moving on to face CT Premier (Stamford, CT). Against CT the boys started off strong but couldn’t keep the momentum as they dropped the match 9-10. Saturday morning saw the 16s playing against NIPC A (Lincolnshire, IL) and the boys came back with a vengeance, winning the game 18-6. Up next the squad went up against Rocky Mountain Neptunes (Boulder, CO) and managed to pull off a 16-10 win. That win put the boys into a play in game against Greenwich (Greenwich, CT) for a spot in the platinum bracket semi-finals. After four quarters of back-and-forth action the 16s put squeaked out a fantastic 10-9 finish, moving them into the semi-finals Sunday morning. In the semi’s the boys re-matched against CT Premier and this time the 16s were ready, posting a 13-9 win to earn a place in the championship final against Capital (Washington, DC). In the gold medal match the team put together a great performance, however the squad fell short to 9-13 after four quarters of intense action. The 16s finished the tournament with a 7-2 record, earning a 2nd place finish in the platinum bracket.

NWPC 18u girls started their Junior Olympic tournament off with a dominant 25-2 win over Moose B (Cincinnati, OH). Game two had the girls matched up against Norco and while the girls fought hard they came up short 9-11. In their third game on Thursday the girls locked down on defense, posting a 12-9 win over Raider (Miami, FL) to move into the platinum bracket. Friday morning the girls put together a great team performance but couldn’t find the net in the fourth quarter dropping their game against Southside 6-9. In the next match the girls came up against Chehalem (Newberg, OR) and put together the performance of the tournament, winning the match 10-9 on a last second buzzer beater. Saturday morning saw the girls go up against Dynamo (Atlanta, GA) and while the game was well contested the girls fell by a score of 10-13. Against Orlando United (Orlando, FL) the girls fought hard but couldn’t quite finish out the game, ending the game 10-11. In their last game of the tournament the girls faced off against NIPC and while the team played well, they dropped the match 12-14. For the tournament the 18s went 3-5 and finished 12th in the platinum bracket.
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The NWPC 12u coed team started their JO tournament Thursday morning with a nail biting 4-3 win over the Rocky Mountain Neptunes (Boulder, CO). In their second game against Oahu (Oahu, HW) the Orcas couldn’t quite keep up, drooping the contest 1-13. Game three on Friday morning pitted the 12s against Kearns (Kearns, UT) and the team played hard as the score was 2-3 at half. However, the second half told a different story as Kearns pulled away, with the game ending by a score of 2-9. Up next the 12u’s faced off against Viper Pigeon (Houston, TX). The 12s came out firing and put forth a great team effort but came up just short, 8-11. Saturday saw the 12s play their lone game against Texas Mavericks (Dallas, TX) and after four quarters of tough play they dropped the contest 4-9. In their last two games of the tournament the 12s came up against Zilla and Thunder Girls. Against Zilla (Cedar Park, TX) the team dropped a close a 5-7 game before following up with a 12-9 win against Thunder (Dallas, TX). Overall, the 12s finished with a 2-5 record and a 12th place finish in the platinum bracket.

NWPC 14u boys had a slow start in their first game against Viper Pigeon (Houston, TX) coming up short 4-10. Game two saw the boys rebound with a solid 15-11 win against Bainbridge (Bainbridge Island, WA). In their third game on Thursday the boys faced off against Lake Oswego (Lake Oswego, OR) and while they put forth a solid effort the team had trouble finding the back of the net dropping the game 3-14. Friday saw the 14s compete against Greenwich (Greenwich, CT) and after four quarters of back and forth play the 14s dropped the match 8-13. Against Mountain Premier (Park City, UT) the 14s put together a hard-fought game but ran out of steam in the second half to finish the match 11-14. Saturday saw the boys rebound with a solid 16-10 win over New Trier (Northfield, IL). They followed up that W with a 11-6 win over Colorado (Denver, CO) before losing in a shoot out to Chehalem (Newberg, OR) 14.5 -14.3. The loss put the boys in the gold bracket 5th place game against Southern Utah (St. George, UT) Sunday morning. The squad fought hard for four quarters and earned a fantastic team win by a score of 12-11. For their efforts the 14s finished with a 4-5 record and a 5th place finish in the gold bracket.

Congratulations to all the Northwest teams on a fantastic 2021 Junior Olympics tournament. NWPC will be back in the pool for the 2021 Fall season starting Sep. 7th in Bellevue and Seattle.

Official tournament scores and results can be found here