Down two goals with a quarter left, the Los Altos Water Polo Club’s odds of making it to the women’s 19+ division final didn’t look good. But in the last eight minutes, the team rallied for an 8-6 semifinal victory at the 2022 Masters Nationals Championship.
The Los Altos team couldn’t repeat that feat in the final, falling 10-2 to an Orange County Riptide team with three former Olympians, and settled for the silver.
Held late in the summer in Irvine, the tournament offered age divisions from 19-70 years old. With 77 total teams, it is one of the largest and most competitive Master tournaments (age 20 and older) in the nation.
En route to the final, the Los Altos team known as the Peacocks played the Sunset Water Polo Club of San Diego, the Oakland Water Polo Club and the Olympic Club of San Francisco.
Although the team fell short of its ultimate goal, the players were satisfied with their performance.
“As a team, we’re really proud of ourselves,” Allie Stewart said. “The gold-medal game didn’t go quite according to plan, but we did our best, and we were really happy with our silver medal.”
More than a month after the tournament, four members of the team were recognized for their efforts. USA Water Polo announced Oct. 6 its Masters National All-Americans, and four Peacock players – Haley Cameron, Hannah Harvey, Ally Hansen and Alyssa Lengtat – earned second-team honors.
While the Peacocks are based in Los Altos, their players come from throughout the state. Stewart lives in her hometown of Sacramento, where she works as a legislative analyst, but she played college water polo at San Jose State University.
The roster also includes former players from UC Davis and Santa Clara University.
Due to the reportedly small Masters community, Stewart described the team’s recruitment process as a “phone tree.”
