Women's water polo preps for tourney with reunion game
By Blake Twisselman
For some, it was a tune-up, for others it was a chance to get their feet wet again.
With a little less than one week until the WWWPA Tournament, the Santa Clara women's water polo squad scrimmaged against some friendly, familiar competition last Sunday at the Leavey Pool in the second-annual alumni game.
The alumni team was comprised of 10 recent graduates, including last year's captain, Elizabeth Glotzbach, and many players who graduated from the 2000 squad. Darci Casinelli, Lara Williams and Regina Dineen each scored two goals for the alumni team.
"The alumni game is a good thing because it keeps the former players in touch with the Santa Clara program," junior Catherine Flynn said. "They can see how the program is doing and how it has grown since they were here."
Although the current players won by a score of 16-7, last Sunday's game was more about building camaraderie within the Santa Clara water polo family, establishing connections, and storytelling at the post-game barbeque.
"We're basically building a base within our program and the alumni game is an important way of doing that," Head Coach Keith Wilbur said. "It's important that we got this game started, and it's important for the alumni to see where our program is now. Hopefully this game will bring a connection between the former and current players. This is a great experience to bring them closer together."
The alumni game served as the last formal scrimmage before this weekend's Women's Western Water Polo Association Tournament in Los Angeles. The Broncos will enter the WWWPA Tournament as the No. 5 seed out of 10 teams and will take on fourth-seeded Cal State Bakersfield in the first round this Friday at 12:30 p.m. Santa Clara and Bakersfield met earlier in the season on Feb. 15 in Santa Cruz, with the Broncos losing by a score of 10-7. Juniors Catherine Flynn and Katy Shumm each netted two goals for Santa Clara in the previous match-up with the Roadrunners.
The top-seeded team in the WWWPA Tournament is Loyola Marymount, followed by UC San Diego, UC Davis, Cal State Bakersfield, Santa Clara, Cal State San Bernardino, Cal State Hayward, Chapman, UC Santa Cruz and Sonoma State. The winner of this weekend's tournament will receive an automatic invitation to the NCAA Championships, May 8-9 at Stanford University.
"There's been a lot of upsets in water polo this season and women's water polo in general," Flynn said. "Anything can happen, and with the way we're playing right now, I think good things will happen to us."
Santa Clara, which enters the tournament with an impressive 11-3 record against the rest of the tournament field, will aim to improve upon last year's fifth-place finish at the WWWPAs. For Wilbur and company, that seems like a genuine possibility in this tournament.
"I think we have a chance of upsetting one of the top-three seeds," Wilbur said. "But that first game (against Cal State Bakersfield) is going to be crucial."
û Contact Blake Twisselman at (408) 554-4852 or jtwisselman@scu.edu.