Water polo hits the pool for season opening weekend


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Yearning for another championship, women’s water polo prepares for their first competitive preseason game Friday against the UC San Diego Tritons before traveling to Whittier on Saturday. The weekend will begin the Women of Troy’s campaign to the MPSF and NCAA playoffs.

The No. 19 Tritons have garnered a 3-1 preseason record beating Azusa Pacific 15-7, CSUN 10-9 and CSU Bakersfield 9-7 while falling to UC Santa Barbara 9-10. Senior 2-meter defender Alexis Wieseler has already paved her way as the preseason leading scorer for the Tritons with 13 goals in 4 games while goalie Courtney Miller has racked up 38 saves thus far in preseason play.

Returning for his 22nd consecutive season, Coach Vavic and the Women of Troy expect to make a splash in the preseason and MPSF play on their campaign for a thirteenth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. With seven members having played at the national level in both the FINA World Championship and the FINA Junior World Championship, the Women of Troy have proven to be a highly skilled team to be reckoned with.

Looking into the roster, the Trojans boast a deep defensive line-up with six outstanding goalies, including sophomore Victória Chamorro who had an outstanding freshman season with 207 saves and All-MPSF honors. Making her debut season with the Trojans, Amanda Longan is expected to bring extra fire to the cage with an already impressive track record, having received the Top Goalkeeper award at the 2015 FINA Junior World Championship.

Opponents of the Trojans face double trouble on offense from the Haralabidis sisters, Ioanna and Stephania who shared a total of 114 goals last season, and Canadian sophomore Hayley McKelvey who represented Canada in the 2012 and 2014 FINA Youth World Championships as well as the 2015 FINA Junior World Championship.

“Our main goal is to be the best defensive team in the league,” sophomore captain driver Brianna Daboub said. “Ultimately, we’d like to take down No. 1 Stanford and be NCAA champions.”

The Women of Troy are confident in their younger squad and believe they have a special chemistry that will ultimately set them apart from the competition and lead them to the playoffs.

“Though we did lose some key players, we have a younger talented team and we are very close, so we’re working to play as a unit in the pool and stay strong on defense,” senior driver Melissa Bergesen said.

The season opener against the Tritons will begin at 5 p.m. at the Uytengsu Aquatic Center.