Pool sees first major tourney this weekend

By Margo Consul

After closing out their regular season with a 9-3 win over UC Santa Cruz at home, the women's water polo team will be hosting the Western Water Polo Association Championship for the first time in Santa Clara history this weekend.

"It's fun to host, and I think there's an advantage to playing at home in front of a good home crowd, so I think that's something we're looking forward to for the tournament," head coach Keith Wilbur said.

"The previous pool was not big enough to host any event of significance," Athletic Director Dan Coonan told The Santa Clara in October. "A lot of schools didn't want to come and play us because of it."

The hosting duties of the conference championship alternates between the schools within the WWPA. The Broncos had always passed on hosting for both men's and women's water polo championship games because the old pool was not of regulation size, said Wilbur.

"We'll get to host this year, and it's the year we got the new pool so it was perfect," said Wilbur.

The women's water polo team will be going into this year's tournament as the No. 3 seed after finishing their regular season with an overall record of 17-15 and a WWPA record of 10-3.

Their top-three ranking was an improvement after being the No. 5 seed last season.

Santa Clara will receive a first-round bye and will play the winner of the No. 6 Colorado State and No. 11 Chapman game Friday at 5:20 p.m.

The championship game is slated for Sunday, April 26 at 2 p.m. The winner of the WWPA Championship will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.

The Sullivan Aquatic Center will be closed for recreational use this weekend for the championship.

"It's a big first game to get into the top four, and if we get there we always enjoy playing the teams at the top of the conference," Wilbur said.

This will be the second water polo tournament and the first major event that the Sullivan Center will see since its opening in October.

The women's water polo team hosted The Bronco on April 4 and 5. Eight teams participated, and Santa Clara finished with a 3-1 record on the weekend.

"It's nice that we have this new facility. It brings a lot of people to campus," Wilbur said, including area high schools and club teams.

The Broncos faced a rocky start this season after they graduated five of their seven starting players from last year.

"I think the team showed good character and focused on the goals," Wilbur said of the team's response to their early losses.

Tri-captain Claire Linney said that the Broncos bounced back from these losses quickly.

"I think we got progressively better as the season went on, and it was noticeable," Linney said. "We won some big games and we played some big tournaments well."

Santa Clara boasts five players with at least 25 goals.

Offensively, Linney led the Broncos with 31 goals, followed closely by fellow senior tri-captain Amy Lamb's 29 goals and sophomore Taylor Harkins with 28 goals.

Defensively, Lamb leads the team with 45 steals. She also ranks as the team leader with 47 assists.

"I think one of the strengths of our team is that we don't have an all star per se. Everybody has to play well," Linney said.

Santa Clara was also raked with injuries, but that didn't get the Broncos down.

"We had a lot of injuries at the beginning of the year, which I think could have brought down the morale of the team, but it didn't," Lamb said. "We stepped it up and did what we had to do."

The Broncos are looking to their younger players at this weekend's championships.

One of those players is sophomore goalkeeper Wren White.

White was out for almost four weeks beginning in January because of a broken finger.

She had 212 blocks in 25 games and finished in the top 10 of the WWPA for goalie blocks.

The team doesn't want to get ahead of themselves, and the players are trying to keep their focus on the task ahead of them this weekend.

Lamb is especially focused going into what might be her last collegiate tournament.

"It makes you want to win more because you don't want to stop playing," she said, "We can't over look any team, so our first game is our most important."

Contact Margo Consul at (408) 551-1918 or mconsul@scu.edu.