Jensen, Renegades take aim at defending water polo national title

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

The U16 Calgary Renegades were a sinking ship.
The defending national champions wrapped up the National Championship League water polo season with a 1-3-16 record, good enough for dead last in the division.
“It was a pretty rough year,” said Strathmore’s Payton Jensen, who plays in the hole set position for the Renegades. “We lost a lot of really strong players from last year’s team and it took some time for the new players to set up into those roles.”
When the western conference finals rolled around, it appeared there was going to be a new representative at nationals and a new national champion.
“I don’t think anyone expected us to do well at westerns after the year we had. But we thought we still had a chance,” said Jensen.
Armed with three weeks of practice before westerns kicked off April 27 at the Kinsmen Centre in Edmonton, the Renegades hit the pool hard.
They spent their three weeks getting into their best physical shape of the season and ironed out some of the kinks that plagued them earlier in the year.
“We really emphasized our counterattacks. We corrected that and were able to retrieve the ball back more which gave us more opportunities to put it in the other team’s net,” said Renegades first year Head Coach Andrew Camilleri.
After losing a nail-biter 10-9 in the tourney opener to Fraser Valley, the Renegades dumped the Edmonton Tsunami 6-5 and shaved Fraser Valley 4-3 in a rematch one day later.
Jensen, who is typically stationed in front of the other team’s net, picked up a goal in the second period of her team’s win over Fraser Valley. It was her only goal of the tourney.
“Payton has been great for us. She plays a big role on this team,” said Camilleri. “We rely on her to hold her position in front of the net so the rest of the offence can get closer to the net in order to generate better scoring chances.”
The pair of wins propelled them into the gold medal match against the Pacific Storm. Regardless of the outcome, the defending national champions earned their ticket back to nationals just by reaching the finals at westerns. The Storm will head into nationals as the higher ranked team, as they slighted the Renegades 3-2.
Where they rank at next week’s national tournament in Montreal doesn’t matter at all, as three weeks ago, a return trip to nationals felt like a pipe dream.
“We really worked our butts off in practice. This was the most continued team I’ve ever been a part of and we were really fast in the water,” said Jensen. “We also improved our defence in time for the tourney and were able to shut down some of the better teams.”
Jensen didn’t see much of the pool in last year’s drive to the national title, but she will head back to the big tournament alongside Natasha Dykman and Elizabeth Birch, as they aim to defend their title.
“I remember last year being an indescribable feeling when we won the national title. That doesn’t happen very often and now we have a chance to do it once again,” said Jensen. “This time, it would be even more surreal because we were literally the worst-ranked team in Canada. We went out and showed everyone what kind of team we are by turning things around the way we did and that we can’t be underestimated. Now, we just have to go out and play like we can and hopefully bring another national title home.”
The Renegades will open the tourney May 24 when they take on the Capital Wave at Parc Olympique. The Renegades will play in three round robin games before the playoffs start.
“Our goal at nationals is to keep improving each game,” said Camilleri. “How far that takes us is up to the girls. Obviously, we want to win, but we will be going up against some very strong teams. They have showed the ability to improve just to get to this point, so if they keep working at it, we will see where we sit come the end of the tournament.”
The tournament runs through May 26 and live scoring can be followed on the Water Polo Canada website.