Women of Troy return strong class, add talent


By
 in , ,

With five returning stat leaders and a strong underclassmen force, the Women of Troy are gearing up for an explosive season in hopes of capturing a fifth NCAA championship.

Finishing third in the 2015 NCAA Tournament, the Trojans had a memorable season. Coach Jovan Vavic received the Pac-12 Coach of the Century Award for winning six consecutive national championships with the men’s team from 2008-2013 (nine titles in his tenure) and an additional four national championships for the women since 2004.

Vavic was not the only one to receive awards from an outstanding 2015 season.

The Trojans who departed in 2015 include stat leader Monica Vavic, who had 100 goals in the 2015 season alone, Eike Daube, Jennifer Stiefel and Jayde Appel. Despite having four graduating seniors after the 2015 season, Coach Vavic is excited to see what the young team will accomplish with freshman goalie Amanda Longan who played for the U.S. Cadet National Team alongside freshman Brooke Presten and helped bring home the gold for Team USA in the 2015 FINA Junior World Championships.

Players to watch this season include sophomore goalie Víctoria Chamorro. Chamorro totaled 207 saves as a true freshman and received All-American and All-MPSF honorable mentions while also being selected to the MPSF All-Newcomer Team. On offense, the Trojans will be returning the Haralabidis sisters, Ioanna and Stephania, who shared a total of 114 goals in the 2015 season and played together for the Greek National Team in the 2015 FINA World Championship, and sophomore utility Hayley McKelvey who also made an appearance in the 2015 FINA Junior World Championships, representing Canada. Mckelvey scored 20 goals in 16 games in her freshman season and has also represented Canada in the 2012 and 2014 FINA Youth World Championships.

Ending the season 4-2 in MPSF and 24-6 overall, the team has been ranked 2nd in the 2016 pre-season coaches poll trailing a point behind No. 1 Stanford and one point ahead of No. 3 UCLA, indicating close match-ups to come during MPSF play.

While No. 1 seeded Stanford returned many players from the previous season, they’ve also lost three key players, Kiley Neushal, Maggie Steffens and Ashley Grossman, who took time off to embark on their Olympic journey to Rio de Janiero this summer. With key rival players out for the season, the Trojans hope to win a fifth national title under Vavic.

On Jan. 13th and 16th, the Women of Troy will face off in a series of pre-season scrimmages against Team Shanghai and then embark on their season opening match against UC San Diego in February.