Despite not having a home pool to practice in this season, the Bainbridge Spartans girls water polo team made it to the state championship, but ended up falling short to familiar foe Curtis 15-8 May 31, securing the Vikings’ fourth straight state title.

The two teams have battled quite often over the years. Bainbridge, a 2A team, also lost to Curtis, a 4A team, in last year’s state title game.

Despite being competitive in the first quarter, the Spartans could not keep up with the Vikings the rest of the way as they built an insurmountable lead.

The Spartans have had to overcome a lot this season due to their home pool being closed for construction, which has forced the team to practice at different facilities. The team has spent over 70 hours in vans and cars getting to and from practices so far this season, transporting gear to each of these facilities, and figuring out how to use new spaces and times efficiently, Bainbridge coach Kristin Gellert said. The team has spent a large part of the season training in square dive tanks, a quarter of the space of a competition pool.

”Being the only 2A school even represented at the state tournament, on top of not having a home pool available, we were proud of the accomplishment to even make it to the championship game,” Gellert said.

The No. 2 seed Spartans (11-2) controlled the tempo in the opening round of the state tournament, beating No. 7 seed Rogers 18-7 May 29 at Curtis High School in Tacoma.

Spartan senior Grace Rich kicked off the scoring for both squads with an immediate up-close-and-personal goal to give Bainbridge an early lead. The Spartans began to dictate the flow of the game with back-to-back goals on the following possessions, extending their lead to 3-1.

Sophomore Ruthie Screen managed to score the first goal in the second quarter, followed by an Emma Atchison score, giving Bainbridge a five-goal lead entering halftime at 10-5.

“I think it was more about setting the tempo for us to have a good weekend,” Rich said.

The Spartans picked up right where they left off at the beginning of the third quarter with scores from senior Llana Gonzales and Rich, giving Bainbridge a 12-6 lead.

Neither team could get much of anything going offensively in the fourth, with both teams struggling to put shots on goal and maintain possession of the ball. Nonetheless, Rich added another goal to the Spartans’ total, giving them a ten-goal lead at 17-7 with a minute remaining in the game.

“At halftime, we just acknowledged that we weren’t playing in our system and getting in our heads,” Bainbridge coach Kristin Gellert said. “So we shifted and decided to go for every ball like it was ours.”

Bainbridge later beat Kennedy Catholic 15-2 in the semifinals.