Women's Water Polo: Tigers seek Eastern Championships repeat

The woman’s water polo team is gearing up to head to Ann Arbor, Mich. for the Eastern Championship for what is surely its biggest weekend of the season. Princeton (23-5 overall, 5-0 CWPA Southern) has had a great season so far and is currently ranked as the 12th best team in the nation. The Tigers will look to build on their success this weekend, trying to repeat their tournament win from last season and return to the NCAA Championships for only the second time ever.

Princeton has lost only five games and won nine of their last 10 matchups. Additionally, four of the Tiger’s five losses have come to teams ranked in the top 15, showing that the Tigers have not faltered against lesser competition.

This has been especially true lately, as the Tigers are coming off a dominating performance in the Southern Championship. They defeated Bucknell, George Washington and Brown by at least eight goals each and by an average of over ten goals.

Junior utility Katie Rigler expressed satisfaction in the way the team played at the Southern Championship, although she knows the true test awaits her squad this weekend.

“We are happy we got the job done at [the] Southern [Championship]; however, we know the real test is this weekend,” she said.

Rigler is one of many weapons of this Tigers team. She leads the team in goals this season with 56 (20 more than the second best scorer). In her sophomore season she was named the Southern Division Player of the Year, the Eastern Championships MVP, and NCAA Championships All-Tournament Second Team last year as a sophomore.

Freshman goalie Ashleigh Johnson has also had a huge impact this season, earning honors four times as Defensive Player of the Week and twice as Rookie of the Week. Senior attack Brittany Zwirner, senior center Saranna Soroka, junior utility Molly McBee and senior left attack Rachele Gyorffy, among others, are also huge contributors to this team and will ultimately dictate its success.

The Tigers are excited heading into this weekend with good reason. They won this tournament for the second time ever last season and have positioned themselves to earn a spot in the NCAA Championships again this year. However, according to Rigler, this team still has some work to do.

“Offense has definitely been a struggle for us this year. We have been working on various plays to get our offense grooving better,” Rigler said before pointing out that whatever the Tigers lack in offensive firepower, they make up for with defensive intensity. “Our greatest strength this year has been our defense. As long as we hustle and put in the effort needed to defend well, we will frustrate a lot of teams offensively.”

In order to come out of this weekend victorious, the Tigers will need to play well both offensively and defensively by sticking to their identity as a defensively-minded team and getting big offensive contributions from players like Rigler.

However, this is easier said than done. As Rigler pointed out, the team has not always played as well as they have been lately. She hopes to build on her recent more productive play.

“I struggled earlier in the season keeping my confidence up and didn't do as well as I hoped to,” Rigler said. “However, my main goal is to win the Eastern Championship, so I feel great going into this weekend.”

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Although this weekend will be a challenge despite Princeton’s success so far this season, the Tigers do have one edge: their victory in this exact tournament last season. Rigler says that she and the team understand this and that it does give them a degree of confidence, although it puts more pressure on them to perform as well.

“It is helpful to have that win under our belt from last year, since we know what to expect and it gives us confidence going into Michigan,” she said. “At the same time, there is a huge target on our backs as the team to beat, so there is a little more pressure.”

The Tigers will face off against either Gannon or George Washington on Friday at 4:40 p.m. in Ann Arbor, Mich. in the second round of the Eastern Championship.