Changing Tides at Texas A&M Water Polo

In a game of seven players battling for a ball in a floorless field, the Water Polo Club at Texas A&M trains in a sport where most of the work happens underwater, beyond the audience’s view. This season, both the men’s and women’s teams have had their ups and downs, but their dedication to the sport remains consistent.

“The fun thing about water polo is it’s one of those sports that you don’t do unless you’re having fun, just because of how difficult it is,” Coach Alessandro Ipson ’26 said. “You need to be a good swimmer, you need to be able to tread water for unspecified amounts of time, you have to be able to be aggressive when someone’s trying to put you underwater. So as a sport, there’s a culture of people who are very enthusiastic about it.”

Men’s Water Polo

The men’s Water Polo Club set a record this season by placing third in the National Collegiate Club Championship. With practices until 11pm five times a week, the club has worked its way up the ranks, making Nationals in each of the past two years. Yet, it wasn’t always this way.

“I feel like ever since I joined, after COVID, the team was in shambles,” men’s Water Polo Club President Xander Zerr ’26 said. “We didn’t do much in practice every day, but as we moved on we got more serious. We actually hired a coach, and then we grew the officer team to get more funding to go to more tournaments. And so two years ago, we placed seventh at Nationals, and this year [we] placed third.”

This year, the team saw one of its own return as head coach — Alessandro Ipson ’26. After a shoulder injury sidelined him from playing, Ipson stepped into the role, and alongside captain Leyton Kraft ’26, helped guide the team through a successful season.

“I grew up in California,” Ipson said. “I grew up playing with all the guys who are on the Olympic team and the Nationals team. That’s just how water polo is. It’s like Texas football, California water polo.”

With a history of coaching experience, Ipson came in with the idea to win.

“In the previous years we had a coach, a guy would show up, sit outside the pool and ref our games from the outside,” Zerr said. “But Alessandro, he took it really seriously. He just wanted to see us win. We have five practices a week and he came to everyone with drills and really detailed points for people to improve on.”

With water polo–specific drills that were new to some players and a solid game plan, the team opened Nationals with a win against the University of Alabama. They were soon up against California State University, Chico.

“They’re projected to do really well,” Ipson said. “I know how these guys think. They’re thinking, ‘Oh’ we’re going against Texas A&M. Texas isn’t known for water polo, this is going to be an easy game.’”

The men’s Water Polo Club had a plan. They pushed back on the first half of the game which led the California team to rethink their options.

“We ended up going up by almost nine in the first half,” Ipson said. “ And then they were like, ‘Oh shoot, we actually have to try.’ We only ended up winning by one. But, man, a wins a win.”

The club is looking to continue its streak as it plays offseason tournaments while the semester winds down. With another year of captaincy ahead, Kraft is looking to raise expectations, set new records, all while holding the team accountable for its leadership.

“I’m looking to continue that streak, the part of making it to Nationals third year in a row [and] absolutely dominating our conference,” Kraft said. “I think overall what has led to our success in the last few years is good leadership and changing how the program [is] run. I want people to step up and kind of grow their leadership skills and use their leadership skills on the team. You don’t necessarily need a title to do that.”

Women’s Water Polo

The women’s Water Polo Club hosted their home tournament at the natatorium in the Student Rec Center on Feb. 21. With the clock ticking down, the game between the Texas A&M Women’s and the University of Texas, Austin club team was tied. At the final buzzer, A&M fired the ball into the net, sealing a buzzer-beater win.

“We were down the whole game but in the fourth quarter, we locked in,” Emily Nguyen ’26 said. “Our coaches called a timeout, and I ended up scoring five points that game out of the 10. I had my best game that I’ve probably ever played.”

The Women’s Water Polo Club had a season of wins and losses, but most importantly,a season of growth and learning.

“Both of our coaches are from California, and they were able to bring in some of their skills as players and as previous coaches,” Morgan Collier ’26 said. “We did some different drills I’d never heard of. There were some goalie conditioning sets I was introduced to that I was like, ‘Whoa, what is this?’”

Much like the men’s team, the women’s team had new coaches this year. With a new learning environment, the team changed its approach to practice.

“In the past we’ve struggled with practice attendance,” women’s Water Polo Club President Reagan Smith ’26 said. “This year, we were able to keep everyone coming to practice because I think everyone was really engaged and excited to come to practice because we were learning a lot.”  

On Feb. 21, the club secured wins against the Texas teams — Texas Tech University, Texas State University, University of Texas and University of Houston. From there, they had the opportunity to play against the University of Florida. 

“Going to Florida was a really cool experience because most times we only get to play Texas teams,” Smith said. “Every state plays water polo a little bit differently, so normally we don’t really get to see how those different states play until we go to nationals. So that was a super great experience.”

Although they didn’t defeat the University of Florida, they followed the loss with a win over Georgia Tech. Behind these wins and losses, the team focused on team bonding. 

“Every Wednesday, we’ll get together and do something new,” Nguyen said. “We call them flex days. We go to Aggie park a lot, we’ve done karaoke at people’s houses. It’s just a great way to get to know each other and to become closer out of the water so that we can trust each other in the water.”

With many graduating this semester, the women’s team faces a gap to fill. Even without a winning season, both the men’s and women’s teams had the chance to take down University of Texas. Behind those moments lies hours of planning, an effort driven by the team’s leadership board. 

“I think a season highlight is just being able to work with the officer team and feel like we all work together really well,” Smith said. “It’s been nice because I think the team really trusts the officer team, so any sort of problems that are going on are being talked about immediately.”