Women's water polo looks to cap best season ever in NCAA tournament

Now that it has conquered the East, the women's water polo team (24-3 overall, 8-0 Collegiate Water Polo Association) heads to Bloomington, Ind., this weekend to take on the nation.

Competing in the Collegiate National Championships, beginning this morning, Princeton will battle Hawaii in its first round of action. If they win this match, the Tigers will play the victor of the Stanford-Harvard match.

"We've never played Hawaii before," head coach Luis Nicolao said. "But we expect them to be rough like the aggressive California teams."

The Tigers, however, have been building up quite a resume this season and should definitely pose a challenge to the top West Coast teams.

Entering the tournament at No. 8 in the nation, the Tigers have shown much improvement over last season's 14th-place finish. With a team consisting mainly of freshmen, Princeton has a lot to be proud of.

As this year's Easterns title-holders, Eastern College Athletic Conference winners and Mid-Atlantic champions — with an undefeated record in the CWPA — this young squad is expected to put up a good fight in Indiana.

"We are definitely capable of placing in the top 10 at nationals," freshman two-meter Adele McCarthy-Beauvais said. "After the top four teams — California, Stanford, UCLA and USC — anyone could be up there."

The draw

The nation's top 10 spots are dominated by teams from the West, with the exception of Princeton. Currently No. 1 in the nation is Stanford. UCLA, the No. 2 seed, is followed by California, USC, San Jose State, San Diego State and UC-Davis.

Placing behind the No. 8-seeded Tigers, in order of ranking, are Hawaii, Long Beach State, UC-Santa Barbara, UMass, Loyola-Marymount, Indiana, Michigan and Harvard.

Princeton hopes to put up a good fight against the tough West Coast teams. During their trip to California in March, the Tigers competed against UC-Davis, California, San Jose State and Pacific, losing to all of those teams except Pacific. Now, with more experience — and a couple titles — under its belt, Princeton should definitely make a splash.

With first-team All-East veteran goalie and senior captain Goga Vukmirovic in the cage — and a field of very strong defenders such as second-team All-East freshman driver Jenny Edwards, sophomore two-meter driver Megan Bouchier, freshman two-meter Devon Watts and freshman driver Joanne Armstrong — the Tigers should be able to keep their opponents at bay.

On offense, Princeton will look to Easterns MVP and first-team All-East McCarthy-Beauvais, first-team All-East and sophomore driver Cassie Nichols and junior two-meter driver Katherine Kixmiller to tally goals.

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"We have named a few plays on offense but for the most part we will be doing what we have done all year," Edwards said. "As long as we execute these plays well, we don't need any new ones. It'll just come down to how well we play and how well we can execute."