Women’s Water Polo Atop Division III

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Author: Abiel Garcia

Women’s Water Polo has been having quite the exciting season this year. As of late, the Collegiate Water Polo Association Top-10 Poll ranked the Oxy women as #1 in Division III. The last time the Tigers were ranked No. 1 in the Nation was in 2006 and before then, it was for one week in 2004.

Helping the Tigers move into the number one spot have been Karie Nickle (sophomore), Tessa Bailey-Findley (first-year) and Kelly Curtin (senior). Nickle leads the team with 51 goals and 27 assists, while Bailey-Findley is second on the team with 37 goals and an impressive 62 steals. Captain Kelly Curtin (senior) has a team-high 57 drawn ejections, while goalie Laura Simononok (senior) has 116 recorded blocks in the cage.

By having two opening wins against La Verne and Caltech, the Tigers were able to move past the Pomona Sagehens, who were ranked first, with Pomona falling to Cal Lu. On Saturday, April 4, the Tigers held off the Bulldogs, who were ranked No. 7, with two unanswered fourth quarter goals by Nickle and Julie Monday (sophomore). The Tigers and Bulldogs were even for three quarters of play, but the two goals in the fourth put the tigers ahead 8 – 6 and sealed the victory.

On Wednesday, April 8, the Tigers took on the Whittier Poets for another Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game. The Tigers pounced on the Poets early in the first quarter and never looked back. Goals came from multiple girls as Monday, Corinne Casey (first-year), Curtin, Hellen Zukin (first-year), Bailey-Findley, and Nickle all found the back of the cage. Monday had a hat-trick, scoring goals in the second, third, and fourth quarter. In the cage, Simononok had seven saves, while Andrea Savage (first-year) blocked one in the final quarter. In the end, the Tigers trampled the Poets 11 – 2 and remained undefeated in SCIAC play.

Saturday, April 11, the Tigers took on the former No. 1 seed, the Pomona Sagehens, in Claremont, CA. The game was an intense battle back and forth, with the Tigers falling by three goals in the end. “Pomona just came out ready to play on Saturday,” Bailey-Findley said, while captain Haley Rosehill (senior) shared that the loss was upsetting and that the Tigers ” just made some mistakes that Pomona capitalized on while we could not capitalize on their mistakes.”

The team knows they can beat the Sagehens when they meet again, but has refocused on defeating their upcoming opponent, California Lutheran.

The recent loss to Pomona shook the Tiger’s cage a little but still as Rosehill put it, “it’s a great feeling to be ranked number one for some time.” As the end of the season nears, with the Tigers sitting on a 4-1 record and the girls setting their sight on a championship, the hopes are high for the Women’s water polo team.

Simononok said that the loss this weekend was tough for the team but “the Pomona game did not affect our chances of advancing to the NCAA Div 1 tournament.”

The girls are jumping back in the pool on Wednesday, April 15th at California Lutheran for their second to last conference game. On Saturday, April 18th, the Oxy women will face Claremont at home in their last home game before the SCIAC Championship Tournament.

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