WRITTEN BY Jacob Weingarten

GRAPHICS BY Sarah Byrne Bautista

// Las Lomas is a school of many sports including football, baseball, basketball, tennis, golf, and more. Recently, one student-athlete at Las Lomas was given an amazing opportunity to represent the school and community overseas. 

This was junior and star water polo player Lily Palma, who played and competed with Team USA’s Youth World Team at the sixth edition of the World Aquatics Women’s U18 Championships. The event took place in Chengdu, China, from September 15 to the 22. Being one of just fourteen players to be able to play for Team USA as well as the third youngest at just the age of 16 is an extraordinary achievement for Palma that should be inspiring to her fellow Las Lomas athletes. 

Palma and the rest of Team USA started the event off strong by winning three straight games en route to ultimately winning their group. Next, in the quarterfinals, they won a close match against the Netherlands. Finally, after losing to Greece in the semifinal, team USA would end up finishing in fourth place after the conclusion of the week-long event, unfortunately falling to Hungary as well in the bronze medal match. 

“Well, I just think it was a really great opportunity to develop more as a player,” Palma said in regards to her biggest takeaway from the experience. She believed that playing in the prestigious tournament helped her to “develop more of a broad skill set… and was just a really fun experience.” 

Palma described the style of play as “a lot more aggressive.” Further, she explained the different styles of play by mentioning the differences in officiating and the calls made by the referees, they “allow different things to pass that would be called here,” said Palma. 

Getting to represent one’s country at an international level, especially 18 hours and nearly 7,000 miles away from home is something that even top-level professional athletes wait many years to do. “I’m grateful to have such a strong support system with everyone, like all my friends and family, and my coaches and everyone cheering me on,” said Palma. 

For Palma to have earned and accomplished this incredible feat at just 16 years of age shows her dedication and talent within the sport of water polo, something that Las Lomas is happy to have in the pool on its team, rather than having to play against her.