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Sports

Winning isn't everything, right?

The Lancers earn their first win of the season with a victory against the Foss Falcons.

It’s not all about winning.

That’s what your middle school sports coach told you after dropping your sixth consecutive game. At that point, it wasn't about just playing the game.

This year, the Lakes girls water polo team has performed less-than-stellar with an overall record of 1-10. That's a nice way of saying the Lancers' season thus far has resulted in hard effort and minimal success.

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Winning 10 percent of your games is not what you’d expect from a program that has been around for nearly three seasons. It’s pretty obvious that team morale drops when the losses begin piling up, especially after all the work you’ve put in whipping yourself into shape and then trying to improve our skills and endurance levels.

Nothing cures sunken morale more than a victory. Lately, tensions have been high and tempers have run thin. Fortunately, one of our most recent games against Foss High School worked to our favor.

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There are a few things that may have made a difference in last week's victory compared to any other water polo contest we've lost. Was it the fact that we had one of the hardest weeks of practice? Perhaps the Lancers got a little extra sleep?

Maybe we were just tired of losing.

Everything seemed to click against the Falcons. We got back on defense, made some good passes and focused on high corner goals; all at full speed.

We took to heart that winning may not be everything but we wanted the effort and the ability to efficiently work as a team to pay off. Winning that game felt good and frankly it was about time.

However, were not satisfied with the victory. There's always room to improve our water polo game and this helps me stay focused on the ultimate goal of self-improvement.

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