Women's water polo suffers close losses in CA tourney

Of the women's water polo team's four games this weekend at the UC-Santa Barbara Gaucho Tournament, not one was decided by more than a goal. Those tiniest of margins would be mostly unfriendly to Princeton, as the Tigers lost three of four games, finishing the tournament in 12th place.

The tone for the weekend was set in Princeton's opener against the tournament host, UCSB, Saturday. Just over three quarters into the game, the Gauchos and the Tigers were locked in a 5-5 tie. The tie was far from stable, however, with the teams aggressively criss-crossing the pool in search of the game-breaker.

Though both sides mounted promising assaults on the goal, neither seemed able to nail the clincher. But with just over two minutes to play in the contest, the Gauchos snuck a shot past Princeton's sophomore goalie Jenny Hildebrand. The Tigers could not answer, and UCSB came away with a 6-5 win.

Unfortunately for Princeton, the first game of the tournament held special significance. The opening-game loss prevented the Tigers from finish among the top eight teams in the 16-team tournament.

"When we lost the first game, it kind of took the wind out of our sails," head coach Luis Nicolao said. "But the girls did well and kept their heads up."

Exhausted from having lost a heartbreaker earlier in the day, Princeton came into its next game, against UC-Irvine, determined to avoid repeating such drama. Early in the game, the Tigers seemed to be accomplishing their goal. Princeton quickly scored the game's first four goals and seemed to be on its way to a big win.

But there would be no such thing as an easy win this weekend. The Anteaters refused to cooperate with Princeton's plan and scored the next five goals to take a one-goal lead. The Tigers would answer behind sophomore driver Jenny Edwards and sophomore two-meter Adele McCarthy-Beauvais, who scored four and three goals, respectively, in the game. The Tigers would come away from the thriller with an 8-7 win, their only victory of the tournament.

The next two contests, played Sunday, were similar affairs, with neither team proving itself distinctly superior. Princeton fell to San Diego State, 6-5, when the Aztecs scored a short-handed goal with just over a minute to play. Then, in their final game against Michigan, which decided the 11th place finisher, the Wolverines emerged the victors, 10-9.

Though the Tigers suffered three difficult defeats on the weekend, the last one was the most troubling in hindsight.

"It always hurts to lose; in all three of those games we had a chance to win," Nicolao said. "We played well in all of them, except the Michigan game."

The threat of a fading morale is not a pressing one, because the tournament's results have little bearing on the remainder of Princeton's season.

"This is going to help us in the long run," Nicolao said. "There are still over 25 games remaining in the season. It wasn't like we got blown out by anybody."