After a momentous win against Zeeland East, the Rangers came out Thursday thirsty for another victory. Unfortunately, the ladies were not able to quench this thirst and lost 12-8 against Rockford. They could have won the game if it wasn’t for the first quarter. In the first quarter, the girls started off slow which set them back and they were unable to come back.

On a brighter note, the Rangers had a tournament on Saturday, April 15. The tournament was a complete success and without a doubt redeemed the ladies from their loss against Rockford on the Thursday prior to the Mason Invitational.

On Saturday, the girls played a total of five games. The first game was against Troy and they won 18-1. The second game was against Grand Blanc and they won 7-2. The third game was against Walled Lake and they won 5-3.

The fifth game they played was against Mason and they won 10-2. Instead of playing Mason on Monday, April 17, they decided to play it on Saturday so the girls wouldn’t have to drive an hour for a game on Monday.

The fourth game was an insane win with an insane story. The fourth game of the tournament was played against Chelsea, which is the 8th-ranked team in the state. The girls did not have high hopes coming into the game but the outcome turned out way better than expected. They won 14-11. What is special about this game was that the final point was scored by FH water polo’s goalie, Sydney Bacon. Sydney Bacon was on fire as she had a ton of saves and was overall playing very well throughout the whole tournament and on Thursday. That fire she had lit up in her spirit motivated her to score that point.

With six seconds left on the clock, Bacon scored a point half a pool away from the goal. Not even Bacon was intending to score; however she did and the team, including herself were stunned in amazement because, in water polo, it is unusual to see a goalie score a point so the team was not expecting it at all. The girls sat in the pool in shock until the realization finally hit and they speedily swam towards Bacon and started celebrating on the spot. That point and the win meant a lot to the team.

“It finally hit that we are actually a good team and we deserve to be ranked higher,” said junior Olivia Oorbeck.

Overall, the Mason tournament gave the team a huge confidence boost. Because the team went undefeated, it could move the team up to at least eighth place in the state rankings. They will not find out until Wednesday because that is when the ranking results are publicized.

The Rangers are finally back and teams across the state should watch out because FH water polo is ready to dominate. The next game is on Thursday, April 20 against Rockford. They are ranked second in the state and it will be a difficult game. Despite that fact, the girls are ready to take on that challenge and prove that a second-place ranking will not define the outcome of the game. The girls have a strong desire to win the game and hopefully, they will be able to accomplish that goal.