Upperclassmen to lead women's water polo season

By Kurt Wagner

As the women's water polo team prepares to take the plunge into the 2009 season, they will be doing so with a core group of veteran returnees.

The No. 20 Bronco women are returning 15 letter-winners from a year ago, including a strong and committed group of seniors who will be looking to improve on their fourth-place finish at the Western Water Polo Association Championship last year.

"I think we have a real strong senior class coming back this year, a lot of players who have been playing a lot since they were freshmen," Santa Clara head coach Keith Wilbur said. "A team very often goes how the seniors go, and we have a good class in place to lead the team."

Santa Clara will rely heavily on this experience when they open their season on Jan. 24 at Cal State East Bay.

Amy Lamb, one of the team captains and an all-WWPA returner from a year ago, feels that experience will be a key factor for the Broncos' success this season.

"We do have quite a few returners," Lamb said, whose twin sister Allie is also a team captain. "We have a lot of chemistry just because we've played together for three years. That's good going into our first game."

The chemistry among the women has been the result of numerous team-bonding experiences that took place throughout the offseason.

After a team trip to the American River to go white-water rafting this October, a group of players set off together on an immersion trip to Mexico to kick off their winter break.

"It's fun and it gets us out of the school and water polo environment and puts us in a different environment where we still have to work together," Claire Linney, another of the Broncos' senior captains explained. "We have to work with other people, and it's always a different experience."

The Broncos also held a team meeting, where they discussed their upcoming season and the expectations and goals the team hopes to accomplish.

The meeting helped the team to focus after the usual hectic start to the winter quarter as players balance classes, practices, tests and games.

"I think that a big goal we have is just being successful in our conference," Lamb said. "Obviously, our ultimate goal is to win the conference, but we'd like to play our best and be happy with however it ends and know that we did our best."

According to Wilbur, this year's team is a little slower through the water than they were last season, which is one area of improvement that the team is addressing before their first game.

"Last year we had one of the top defenses in the country," sophomore goalkeeper Wren White said. "We really focused on continuing that and really keeping our defense pretty strong."

Along with athletic goals, the team also discussed academic goals.

The women's water polo team has also been nationally ranked for their grade point average the last two seasons, finishing seventh in the NCAA last year as Santa Clara's only academically-ranked team.

The team's success in the classroom often correlates to success in the pool.

"I think it's just a sign that the players are well-rounded and on top of things," Wilbur said. "They're here because they want to be and they are committed to it. That makes my job easier because I just get to coach water polo."

Santa Clara should find maintaining their grades a bit easier this season, as they will be playing the majority of their matches at home in the university's new Sullivan Aquatic Center.

"Now we're practicing in a regulation course all the time and we're used to it," Wilbur said. "I definitely think that's going to help our team when we play games."

The new pool, which meets the official regulation size required for water polo, is much larger than the school's previous pool.

"Before, we did a lot of different things to make up for the fact that our course was short," Wilbur said. "But no matter what we did, when we went and played in another pool there was an adjustment period getting used to playing in a regulation course."

Santa Clara has 15 home games this season, a dramatic increase from their traditional four or five.

The Broncos will also play host to the WWPA championships this April, as well as two other tournaments throughout the season.

This will be the first time that Santa Clara has hosted the WWPA championships. The tournament is rotated between four or five different hosts, but in the past, the Broncos have declined their turn to host due to the lack of a regulation-sized facility. With the new pool, the Broncos should be able to host their conference tournament every four years or so, Wilbur said.

Santa Clara faces No. 2 Stanford in their home-opener on Jan. 29. The Broncos will also host nationally-ranked San Jose State and the University of Hawaii at home this season.

"I just really hope we get a good turnout for fans this year," White said. "We have a pretty intense home schedule."à

Contact Kurt Wagner at jwagner@scu.edu.