Beauvais-McCarthy returns as best scorer

Water polo, as practitioners of the sport know, is primarily a West Coast fascination. Californian schools such as Stanford and University of California-San Jose have traditionally dominated the game, though the playing field has gradually become more level with the advent of the spread of the sport across the country.

Still, perhaps the most telling detail of the disparity involved in water polo lies in the fact that out of all three All-America teams for the 2000-01 season, only one person was not from a California university.

That one person was second team All-America Adele McCarthy-Beauvais, a current junior at Princeton.

McCarthy-Beauvais is one of the major reasons behind the Tigers' success in past seasons, most recently leading the team to a third consecutive Eastern College Athletic Conference championship as well as a second consecutive Southern Championship.

For her efforts she was awarded MVP honors in both tournaments. Only halfway through her water polo career at Princeton, she already possesses the all-time scoring record of 176 goals, with 93 and 83 goals her freshman and sophomore years, respectively.

Hailing from Haydenville Mass., McCarthy-Beauvais came into her own as a water polo player while in attendance at Deerfield Academy, a private boarding school in Deerfield, Mass.

While at Deerfield, McCarthy-Beauvais earned 12 varsity letters over her four years— four in basketball, four in crew, and four in water polo. In addition, two of McCarthy-Beauvais's varsity water polo letters came from playing on the men's team during her freshman and sophomore years, when Deerfield didn't have a women's program.

McCarthy-Beauvais gained further experience during the summer after her junior season, when she was given the opportunity to practice with the women's junior national team. Such a demanding regimen paid off, and during her senior year at Deerfield she won the New England Championships and was named MVP.

But the step from high school play to college level athletics is a large one, and McCarthy-Beauvais wasn't quite sure what to expect. Though Princeton at the time was not at the same level as most of the California water polo powerhouses, it represented a significant increase in competitive level.

In December of her freshman year with the Tigers, however, McCarthy-Beauvais was selected to the national B team, which allowed her to practice and play with the United States. Olympic team and gain valuable experience.

Her team played against other Olympians as well, and ended up actually tying the Russian national team in one contest.

The Tigers kick off the 2001-02 season this weekend at the Princeton Invitational, where they look to continue their remarkable streak of success.

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The goal for the season, as always, will be to win the Ivy championship, but the Tigers and McCarthy-Beauvais especially look forward to contesting the Easterns crown they were narrowly stymied in attaining last year.