Recently, 'Prince' senior writer Daniel Satterfield sat down with women's water polo's freshman utility Elyse Colgan. The native of Annapolis, Md. scored 70 goals this season. They discussed underwater horse myths, mahi mahi and the social life on the team.
'Prince': Why did you start playing water polo?
Colgan: I thought it'd be cool. I started swimming when I was five and swam all the way up until my freshman year in high school. A lot of girls who I was friends with played water polo. I swam for a long time, and I got tired of it. I wanted to try something new, so I just decided to start playing. It looked fun.
P: What attracted you to water polo over swimming?
C: Well, this is more social because it's a team sport. It's played on the West Coast, so we'd also get to travel a lot. We'd go out to California like two or three times a year. It was just more fun.
P: What attracted you to Princeton?
C: I came to Princeton on my recruiting trip, and I had such a good time. We already had a history of people going here. I looked at Indiana, Michigan, Brown and Stanford. [pause] And I looked at Harvard.
P: Harvard?
C: Yeah. [guilty face, laughs]
P: We all have our moments of weakness. So why did Princeton stand out? Did you watch a game?
C: The Brown-Princeton guy's water polo game. There were so many people in the stands. I was so excited that people were watching a water polo game.
P: Do not many people watch water polo back home?
C: Some of my friends from high school still think that I ride horses in the water. That's probably the most common question I get: "How do you get the horses in the water?"
P: What do you tell them?
C: "Well, there's this really cool ramp . . ." [laughs]
P: What was water polo like in high school?
C: It's not a high school water polo team, so our tournaments are in the summer. During the year we usually play the boys because there aren't any [girls] teams for us to play. How it worked is that we just had the big tournaments at the end of the year — junior nationals and senior nationals. So we'd go home for like four days and then go to Junior Olympics. Those were basically our three big tournaments that fell back-to-back-to-back.
P: Did you play any other sports?
C: I played soccer for four years. And if you played water polo, you had to swim.
P: No horseback riding?
C: No.
P: What has been your best game?
C: Personally, I think the Olympic game [against Team U.S.A.]. I had a couple of shots that I thought were lucky. It was so fun just to have everyone there. I think about the one [of four goals that day] where the goalie came out and I kind of lifted it over her.
P: What do you like best about playing water polo?
C: That's the fun thing about our team is that all the girls are so close. A lot of us live out there in Rocky-Mathey, so we kind of see each other all the time. There's sort of an inside joke between all of us that between the freshmen and then some of the other girls we have our own sorority called Tri-Fatty.
P: Do you have a nickname?
C: Sizzle. We were giving each other rapper names. They gave me L-Sizzle, and it became 'Sizzle.' I think I actually was writing an email and stuck '–izzle' on the end of everything. It just kind of stuck.
P: What do you see as the main difference in water polo played on the West Coast compared to the East?
C: Basically, lacrosse is huge in Maryland. In southern California, they don't even know what lacrosse is. It's [opposite for] water polo. As far as playing-wise, I don't notice that much of a difference. We play against them all the time. The difference is the popularity.
P: How do you like playing for head coach Luis Nicolao?
C: He's so fun. He's a great coach. He's so goofy sometimes. Just some of his sayings, his facial expressions. If I miss goals, he grabs his head. He's so dramatic sometimes. It makes it much easier when you have a really cool coach.
P: What's your favorite food?
C: Hmmm . . . I have so many. Let me think about this. It seems like such an easy question . . . Mint chip ice cream . . . lucky charms . . . and then I think mahi mahi. So good. My favorite. That's pretty gross if you think of them all together.
P: What's your favorite color?
C: Green.
P: Where's your favorite place to study on campus?
C: Hmmm . . .
P: Do you study?
C: Yes. I think my favorite place is Marquand.
P: The basement?
C: That's for serious studying. Otherwise I come upstairs for half-socializing.
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