Water polo opens season defending perfect record
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 2, 2006 9:00 p.m.
Top-ranked UCLA women’s water polo begins its title
defense today in the season opener against Cal State Bakersfield
and Cal State Northridge. The Bruins, who return all but two
players from their perfect 33-0 season, will then face off in a
conference bout with UC Santa Barbara on Sunday. “It’s
been a while since we’ve played together, and we’re
excited to get things rolling again,” junior goalkeeper Emily
Feher said. “It’s going to be a good way to see how our
group is going to mesh. We’re looking forward to this
weekend.” The Collegiate Water Polo Association Top-20 Poll
has the Bruins pegged as the top team in the nation. Last
year’s runner-up in the NCAA Tournament, Stanford, is slotted
to finish third this season behind UCLA and USC. Bruin senior
defender Lauren Heineck will be out for the season after suffering
the third concussion in her career this past fall while trying out
for the U.S. National Team. Heineck was out for most of the second
half of last season, but did return during the Bruins’ run
for the title in a limited role. This injury effectively ends
Heineck’s UCLA career. Sophomore lefty driver Jenna Murphy is
recovering from the second concussion of her career and is expected
to return for the season opener. She redshirted last season because
of her injury. “She’s feeling good,” UCLA coach
Adam Krikorian said. “She’s been symptom-free. She
should be back in the water later this week.”
MEN’S TRACK: With only a small segment of the team
competing last weekend at the season’s opening meet, the
men’s track team is just getting started. The Bruins hope to
build on a successful first meet as they field a more complete team
this weekend at the United Heritage Invitational in Boise, Idaho.
Most notably, the frontline throwers will be making their season
debut in hopes of adding to the team’s three NCAA provisional
qualifying marks it picked up the week before. “We are all
pretty pumped and excited,” redshirt senior Jeremy Silverman
said. “Boise has a great atmosphere and some good rings to
throw in.” Silverman will lead a veteran core of throwers
Saturday as they will be competing in the shot put. “They are
all training well, and they look strong,” Venegas said.
“We should have some more national qualifiers after this
weekend. We want to make a big splash.” Also competing for
the first time this year will be the long jumpers and triple
jumpers.
WOMEN’S TRACK: The women will also be taking the trip to
Idaho this weekend as coach Jeanette Bolden looks to give her
youthful team more experience. “We have a very young
team,” she said. “We want to get them exposed and get
them used to traveling and competing at different venues against
different competition.” While the younger members will be
getting their feet wet, the veterans of the group will be aiming
for the national spotlight this weekend.
With reports from Ben Azar, Ajaybir Behniwal and David
Garcia, Bruin Sports senior staff.
