Women’s water polo begins inaugural season

Women’s water polo begins inaugural season

Former club team plays first NCAA match on Saturday

By Yoni Tamler

Winter of 1995 marks the first season that women’s water polo
will march into organized competition at UCLA. Coached by Guy
Baker, the Bruins will test their skills for the first time in
history this weekend at the Collegiate Indoor Nationals tournament
in Claremont.

According to Baker, women’s water polo has been a popular sport
at the club level for years. It has only recently, however,
attracted attention at the collegiate level. The UCLA Athletic
Department elevated the Bruin club program to NCAA level in
December 1993.

After this inaugural season, the Bruins will join two other
teams ­ USC and San Diego State ­ in the Mountain Pacific
Sports Federation. The league plans to bring in programs at UC
Santa Barbara, Hawaii, Stanford, Cal, and University of the Pacific
the following year. Even by then, it is doubtful that women’s water
polo will achieve recognition, which means there are no NCAA
Championships. A minimum of 40 schools are required by the NCAA to
be recognized as official, which is twice the number women’s water
polo has now.

Among the team members Baker will count on this season are
goalie Nicole Payne and Stephanie Natcher (a transfer from UC Santa
Barbara), both of whom played for the gold medal-winning U.S.
Junior National Team last summer.

Heading into this weekend’s tournament, Baker expressed he had
no standard by which to measure the team’s expectations.

"We are still in the evaluation phase," he said.