Ransom and Gulliver to continue longstanding battle for supremacy in girls’ water polo

The Ransom Everglades Raiders, who have won a Florida-record eight state titles in girls’ water polo since the FHSAA sanctioned the sport in 2005 – and won their most recent championship in 2019 – are suddenly underdogs.

Gulliver Prep, which made it to the state final last year, is considered the top team in South Florida heading into the 2022 season.

But Ransom coach Eric Lefebvre is hopeful, in part because Gulliver star Alissa Pascual graduated and is now on the team at Stanford, where she will likely redshirt this year.

“The gap is much smaller now between them and us,” Lefebvre said of Gulliver, which will visit Ransom on Feb. 12. “But until we beat them, I can’t say anything, even though I think we have a strong chance.”

Ransom has a senior-based team led by its best player, Sabrina Shipley.

“She’s versatile – I can move her to any position in the pool and have her be a dominant player there,” Lefebvre said. “She’s a college-level athlete. She’s going to let her academics dictate where she goes to college, and all the Ivy League schools she’s interested in like Princeton, Harvard and Brown all play water polo.”

Besides Shipley, Ransom is led by fellow seniors Alexa Hommen, ML Woolsey, Amanda Harris, Dylan Stone and Cecilia Granda-Scott. The goalie is junior Eleonora Cavalini.

Ransom’s players bonded this past summer, competing against northeastern teams while training in Washington D.C. and also at the Naval Academy.

Lefebvre said he believes Ransom would’ve won state had COVID not cancelled the 2020 season. Last year, Ransom administrators decided to play it as safe as possible with COVID, starting the water polo season three weeks late, which hindered the team, Lefebvre said.

“We had some extra restrictions last year, but we’re rebuilding our culture,” Lefebvre said of Ransom’s winning ways. “It’s starting to feel like that again. We just have to re-establish how we got so good in the past.”

Meanwhile, Gulliver will be led this year by junior Gaby Montalvo, who had 65 goals, 55 steals and 18 assists last season. She recently played for Puerto Rico in the Junior Pan-Am Games.

“Gaby is strong, physical and talented,” Gulliver coach Carroll Vaughan said. “But my biggest concern is getting the ball to her.”

Gulliver junior Georgia Pascual, who is Alissa’s younger sister, had 37 goals last year. Senior Emily Miller, just 5-foot-2, had 33 goals, and her 57 steals and 40 assists are tops among Gulliver returners. Miller is a feisty counter-attacker, according to Vaughan.

In addition, Vaughan is hoping to soon have junior Aria Torretta on her roster. But the daughter of the former Miami Hurricanes Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Gino Torretta wants to swim in college, and that’s what she’s focusing on at the moment. Torretta had 26 goals last season.

Lefebvre said he respects Gulliver’s talent, mentioning the Pascual sisters in particular.

“Whenever you have a player of (Alissa Pascual’s) caliber graduate, it makes a big impact on the game,” Lefebvre said. “But I’ve heard her little sister has improved a lot. I’m interested to see how we match up.”

That Feb. 12 match between Ransom and Gulliver will be a big early indicator in the battle for water polo supremacy.

Look at it this way: Of the 16 state titles won in the history of girls’ water polo in Florida since 2005, 13 of them have gone to either Ransom (eight) or Gulliver (five). Last year was a rare deviation from that dominance as Orlando’s Lake Nona - coached by former longtime Gulliver coach Alex Bennett - won the girls’ state title.

“It’s a healthy rivalry,” Lefebvre said. “I love thinking of rivalries, like Coca-Cola saying that the greatest thing to ever happen to Coke was Pepsi. It’s the same thing with competition in sports. You’ll never know how good you can be until someone pushes you.”

Lefebvre was asked if Ransom were Coca-Cola or Pepsi in that analogy.

After laughing for several seconds, he said:

“In my mind, we’re Coca-Cola.”

THIS AND THAT

▪ Westminster Academy, which lost to Gulliver in last season’s state semifinals, returns twin sisters Emmy and Abby Weissman, both of whom are seniors. Emma scored 81 goals last season. Abby produced 56 goals, 36 assists and 107 steals.