W. water polo back in pool after 10-day break

For most people, a 10-day vacation would not be a problem. With 10 days between their last contest and this Thursday's clash with Villanova, however, women's water polo (3-1 overall) may have something to worry about — keeping the momentum after not playing since a win over George Washington more than a week ago.

The Tigers hope to retain their intensity tomorrow as Villanova (1-2) visits DeNunzio Pool and extended it through the weekend as they play four games on Saturday and Sunday, including a showdown with Indiana (5-2), whose Hoosiers are perennially among the East Coast's strongest teams.

Tomorrow's Villanova matchup will be the two teams' first of the year, but it will be the visiting Wildcats' second trip to Princeton in as many weeks. Villanova also competed in the Princeton Invitational early this month, where the Wildcats finished with a 1-2 record. This included a loss to Harvard, a team Princeton had beaten soundly the day before.

It would be tempting for Princeton to look past the Wildcats and prepare for the weekend's action, but the youthful Tigers have already learned their lesson about underestimating opponents.

The last time Princeton took to the pool, the Tigers found themselves knotted, 3-3, at halftime with George Washington in a game that most expected them to dominate. As the third quarter opened, however, Princeton rallied for four goals in the opening minutes and went on to score six more consecutive goals before the final horn sounded.

It seemed a classic example of a locker room pep talk turning the game around, but head coach Luis Nicolao insists that he didn't say anything special at halftime.

"I just told them that it was all about focus," Nicolao said. "The longer we let them stick around, the better chance they had of winning. The girls responded." Those fourteen second-half minutes may have featured the best water polo Princeton has played at this early point of the season. The Tigers' task for the last 10 days has been not to forget how they performed in that significant stretch.

The Tigers will need to bring their best with them this weekend when they head west to compete in the Bucknell Invitational.

The Tigers open the trip with their first game on their Collegiate Water Polo Association league schedule, a game with host Bucknell (2-1). The Bison also played in the Princeton Invitational and fell to Harvard. Princeton has been careful, however, not to give that loss much attention.

"That was [Bucknell's] first weekend of the season, just like for us," Nicolao said. "You learn new things every day, especially this early in the season, and we expect Bucknell to be different than they were two weeks ago."

The weekend's greatest challenge will come against Indiana, who entered the week ranked No. 9 in the country. The Tigers hope a win against the Hoosiers will spark a run to the NCAA Championships in May. This game will serve to gauge the team's progress toward that goal, because Indiana was the East Coast's sole representative in last year's championships.

The time between games gave the Tigers an opportunity to heal, but the returning injured players were hit with a flu bug that took several others out of the pool.

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"It's like a domino effect sometimes," Nicolao said. "In situations like this, it is nice to be so deep. When girls are injured or not playing well, another girl can step in."

Following this weekend's five games, the Tigers' season will come more sharply into focus, helping them better see just how far their depth can carry them.