Texan Edwards a force in the pool for women's water polo

"Go Texas!" yelled a man at the same time he waved the one-starred flag in the middle of the women's water polo game. The man was Tom Edwards. His daughter, Jenny, had just scored her second goal in the game Princeton lost to San Diego State, 9-6, during the Tigers' trip to California over Spring Break.

"My dad has this obsession with bringing a Texas flag to every game and yelling 'Go Texas!' every time I touch the ball," says 6-feet tall Edwards, laughing. The inevitable question comes, and she answers, amused, "No, my mom's pretty behaved."

Next year the famiily will have two Edwards to cheer for when Jenny's brother T.J. will join the men's water polo team.

Her mind goes back to freshman year in high school when she started playing the sport. "I came to school a week late and missed the volleyball tryouts," she remembers. "The water polo coach was basically trying to get anyone to play." Edwards decided to join and played the sport all through high school along with basketball, where she excelled thanks to her height and strength.

Originally from Houston, Jenny graduated from St. Agnes Academy and is now a junior enrolled in the psychology department. One of the leaders of the Princeton's women's water polo team, she has been a key player since freshman year, when she was a starter. That year she made the all-league team and last year, only a sophomore, the 2-meter defender was named second team All-East at the Eastern Championships.

Her best personal memory comes from freshman year, when Princeton faced Hawaii in the first round of the Collegiate National Championships.

We were down 4-0 after the first 3 minutes," Edwards recalls, "And then 5-4 at halftime."

But then the Tigers came out of the break and obtained a 10-9 advantage in the fourth quarter. Hawaii found the back of the net to even the issue at 10 all, before Edwards tallied her fifth goal of the day to give the Orange and Black a lead it would never relinquish. The victory secured the top eight finish, one of the most important achievements in the team's history.

Suddenly, there is a mood shift in the conversation when she starts talking about Princeton's eastern foe, Brown. One could see the picture: It was the final game of the 2001 Eastern Championships. Princeton was playing the Bears at Providence, R.I., and the winner would head on over to the NCAA final four. With seconds to go in overtime, Brown scored and defeated the Tigers 11-10.

"Since that game they keep thinking they're better, but they're definitely not," declares Edwards, half joking, half malicious. And then came what is now a sweet memory.

Almost a year later, the Tigers faced the Brown Invitational as their chance for revenge. In the last match of the second day of the Invitational, Princeton stepped into the same pool to face the Bears — who had won three games to improve their record to 6-3.

"We showed no mercy and went up 7-1 in the first quarter," Jenny says with a smile on her face. "At the end we beat them 11-4 and showed them who's best."

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Four of those goals were scored by Edwards, including three in the first three possessions.

Today, Princeton is flying high with a 13-5 record, even after matches with top-ranked west coast teams. Just last week, the Tigers defeated Michigan 17-16 in a very intense game where both teams had rejected players. Edwards scored three goals in the game.

"Adele [McCarthy Beauvais] was on fire that day. She made eight incredible goals that really boosted our team."

But the whole team is playing great," she adds. "The freshmen are really stepping up, in general there is great team chemistry fueled by Luis's [coach Nicolao] inspirational speeches."

While walking, Edward's roommate Katie Rogers, the star of the Cottage Intramural water polo team, recognizes Jenny from the other side of the street. After a while she can't resist and declares, "Please say that I'm forever grateful for Jenny's help. She taught me everything I know about water polo and that is how I am the player that I am today."

At 12:30 Edwards had to leave for art history.

"My goal for this season and I think the team's goal is to win Easterns. It's going to be a really tough tournament but we definitely have the potential to beat every team there, so that's what we are shooting for and this will give us a bid to the NCAA final four."