Women's water polo cruises by UMass

The women's water polo team defeated UMass, 8-5, Sunday in its first game at DeNunzio Pool since the Princeton Invitational in early February. The Tigers, entering the match ranked 14th, held the lead the entire time over the 17th-ranked UMass team.

Adele McCarthy-Beauvais, a sophomore from Haydenville, Mass., led the team in scoring with four goals. Junior Cassie Nichols and sophomore Jenny Edwards also had three and one goal, respectively. These three players have combined to lead the Princeton offense for much of the season. Sophomore goalie Jenny Hildebrand recorded eight saves in the match.

The UMass win reinforces a very strong performance by the Tigers two weeks ago at a Collegiate Water Polo Association League Weekend, in which they went 4-0 against five Eastern Conference rivals.

Princeton defeated Villanova, George Washington, Salem International and Bucknell by an average of 6.5 goals a game.

The winning streak marks a return to form for the Tiger women. Ranked fifth in the preseason by Sports Illustrated for Women, the Tigers had high expectations for the coming year, including a repeat Ivy League championship and a return to the national championship tournament in California. Such a season seemed to be within reach, with the team losing only one senior to graduation, albeit one of the most crucial, the honorable mention All-American goalie Goga Vukmirovic '00.

The season started off in an unexpected direction, however, as the Tigers lost to Brown in the first week of the season — a game most believe Princeton should have won.

"We weren't even thinking about the game," Edwards said, "but we still should have won."

Two weeks later, in late February, the Tiger women suffered another string of disappointing losses at the University of California-Santa Barbara tournament. Almost every university in California has an extremely strong water polo program — only three of the top 15 teams are based outside of the Golden State — so Princeton was prepared to be challenged, but still only managed to go 1-3 against a difficult field. The Tigers defeated UC-Irvine, and lost by a single point to UC-San Diego, UC-Santa Barbara, and Michigan.

"We haven't played to our potential so far," said Nichols. "Though we've done very well the past two weekends, we were expected to do so, since we were playing easier teams, aside from UMass. When we finally put it all together, we'll be very competitive, both at Easterns and in California."

Despite early setbacks, the team's play has consistently improved, and the Tigers feel confident heading into the next stretch of the season. Princeton is favored to win most of its remaining games, starting with a home game against Villanova this Saturday at DeNunzio Pool.

"I think we have an incredible team this year with a lot of experience," Edwards said.

"We're excited to see just how far we can go," sophomore Jojo Armstrong added.