W. polo gears up for Championship Tourney

W. polo gears up for Championship Tourney

Bruins forgo California Tournament, remain home to prepare for
nationals

By Emmanuelle Ejercito

The UCLA women’s water polo team played hooky from last
weekend’s Pacific Association Championship Tournament hosted by
California.

The Bruins decided to forgo the tournament because of the
upcoming National Championship Tournament this weekend.

"There are two reasons (why we did not go to the tournament at
Cal)," UCLA head coach Guy Baker said. "The primary reason is it’s
too close to the college championships. We wouldn’t have enough
time to rest and recover from a weekend like that. The second
reason is budget. If we hadn’t qualified for the national
championships we would have gone."

Instead of participating in the California Tournament, the
women’s water polo team played a scrimmage game on Friday. The team
added a couple of new defenses to their arsenal, hoping to lower
the scoring of their upcoming opposition. During Friday’s scrimmage
the score was 4-4, which accomplished the goal.

"We want a low scoring game," Baker said. "We practiced that (on
Friday). It’s kind of an art to keep a low scoring game."

One player helping them keep the score low is goalie Nicolle
Payne. As the team enters the national championships, the average
number of goals scored against Payne is 6.47. In the 76 quarters
that Payne played, she has saved 126 shots and had 123 goals scored
against her.

"That is an outstanding goals against average," Baker said. "The
problem is that I doubt that we are averaging 6 goals per game, at
least against the top teams."

The high scorers for the Bruins are Stephanie Natcher and
Jennifer Cady, who have scored 21 and 20 goals respectively.

* * *

The UCLA women’s water polo roster has been finalized for the
national championship tournament. The team is only allowed to take
13 players to the championships. The roster during the qualifying
tournament two weeks ago contained 14 players.

"(The final roster was determined) by how they’ve done in
practice and how they’ve done in games," Baker said. "The 14 (at
the qualifying tournament) was the 14 best that we’ve had all
season long. They didn’t make it easy to choose."

The thirteen players include the starters from the regular
season, goalie Nicolle Payne, captain Kimberly Bhesania, Devon
Brewer, Jennifer Cady, Stephanie Natcher, Jessica Nelson, and
Heather Wright. The other six players are Molly Barnes, Jill
Buckley, Shanta Duffield, Paige Ericksen, Leslie Hunter, and Meagan
Oesting.

* * *

The Bruins are slated to be in the "B" bracket for the national
championship tournament.

UCLA, the fifth-ranked team entering the tourney, will face
third-ranked San Diego State University in the first game. The
Aztecs, who finished second in the Western Zone Qualifying
Tournament, defeated the Bruins both times they played during the
regular season.

Other teams in the "B" bracket include second-ranked Slippery
Rock and Harvard.