Women's water polo team will face stiff competition at Stanford

By Blake Twisselman

The Santa Clara women's water polo team was invited to join elite company at the prestigious Stanford Tournament this weekend in Palo Alto.

"There's basically two main tournaments and this is one of them," Head Coach Keith Wilbur said. "I would say that this is the top tournament in the nation because of the stacked group of teams playing in it."

Stacked may even be an understatement to describe the talent level of the Broncos' competition this weekend. The tournament field includes UCLA, USC and Stanford (No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 in the nation, respectively) as well as No. 7 California, No. 8 Michigan and No. 12 San Jose State.

The eight teams are divided into two brackets of four schools that will compete in a three-game round robin format, followed by a final game on Sunday, to determine the overall placing. The Broncos were placed in Bracket "A," along with California, Hawaii and UCLA. The squad opens with California on Saturday at 11 a.m., followed by a 7 p.m. Saturday match with Hawaii and a Sunday morning battle with the Bruins at 10 a.m.

"Our main team goal is to play at a high level of competition throughout the tournament and improve our team," Wilbur explained.

The Broncos, who are currently unranked, hope that the valuable experience of playing against the nation's elite teams will prepare them for conference play.

"It's a really big honor to be asked to this tournament," sophomore utility player Kathleen Hamm said. "We were a little bit nervous when we first found out that we were playing in [the Stanford Tournament], but I think it'll be a good learning experience and will help take our program to a whole new level. Playing these teams will only make us better."

Added sophomore driver Bryn Asher, "Our team goal is to finish third or higher in our conference and playing in this tournament should definitely help us improve and prepare for the rest of the season."

Santa Clara's invitation to the Stanford Tournament speaks volumes for the team's recent improvement under head coach Keith Wilbur. Wilbur has already begun to legitimize Santa Clara as one of the nation's up-and-coming water polo programs by hauling in an excellent recruiting class and implementing a rigorous training routine.

"We lost a strong senior class from last year, but we brought in a talented group of younger players to replace them for this year," Wilbur explained. "We're much faster than we were last year and we have a much deeper bench."

Wilbur helped mold the young and talented group of players into game preparation during extensive two-a-day offseason practices.

"We're in much better shape than we were last year," Asher said. "This season, we trained by doing running, weights and swimming in the morning and then going out and playing water polo in the afternoon."

Hamm echoed her teammates' position regarding the team's increased physical preparation.

"We've done a lot more conditioning this year and I feel like we're a much stronger team than we were last year at this point in the season."

The increased offseason dedication demonstrated by the players, coupled by the team's invitation to one of the nation's best tournaments, should be a clear signal that the Santa Clara women's water polo team is a program on the rise.

"It's definitely an honor to be invited to this tournament," Wilbur said. "It's a great experience for our team and I think it is a good sign for our program."

û Contact Blake Twisselman at (408) 554-4852 or jtwisselman@scu.edu.