The women's water polo team returned victorious last weekend from their last series of games in the regular season, defeating three East Coast teams to go undefeated in league play for the third consecutive year.
The Tigers overwhelmed Salem-International 20-3 on Saturday, during which thirteen different Princeton players scored at least one goal. Freshman Alexis Olle led the team with three goals. Sophomores Jenny Hildebrand and Lisa Rockefeller had three saves apiece in goal.
The next day Princeton beat both Bucknell and George Washington, by scores of 14-7 and 14-3. With those three victories, the Tigers' league record went to 8-0 — undefeated for the third time in as many years. Sophomore Adele McCarthy-Beauvais scored 11 goals between the two Sunday games, and Hildebrand had 13 saves in six quarters of play.
As the favorite to win at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference championships this coming weekend, the Tigers have the opportunity to go all the way to Nationals this year. Such a finish would require strong performances at the ECACs, and also at the subsequent Southern and Eastern championships.
"Everyone's doing really well, we've hit our stride," Rockefeller said. "We're all pretty confident we can beat anyone on the east coast."
Aside from an unexpected loss to Brown in the first week of the season, the Tigers have dominated their competition and expect to succeed against the other eastern teams, such as Michigan, UMass and Indiana. It is the intimidating water polo powerhouses of the west that are expected to give the Tigers a challenge. Stanford, UCLA, USC and other Californian teams have long occupied the top tier of the sport, and that doesn't look to change much this year.
"Those teams play year-round, they have fifth-year seniors and scholarship players," senior captain Katherine Kixmiller said. "They are going to be extremely difficult to beat. But we definitely have the potential and skill to compete there."
The Tigers, who finished ranked eighth last year, are on the top of a rising wave of east coast water polo programs. They attracted attention after upsetting Hawaii at Nationals last year, and have lived up to their new reputation for much of this season. This year, however, the national tournament has become NCAA sanctioned, and the field has been narrowed down to four teams — the three best from California and the winner of Easterns.
Winning Easterns has been the team's main goal all season, and they look likely to do so for the second year in a row, despite a steadily increasing level of competition. Once in the national tourney, the Tigers will have to trust their training and level of teamwork.
"I have a lot of faith in our making it happen when it counts, and this is when it counts," Kixmiller said.
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