Jan. 28, 2006
Spring is here. Well not quite, but the start of women's water polo season is, as the Aggie women open up competition for the 2006 season this Sunday, Jan. 29 at home at Schaal Aquatic Center. The Aggies are set to face Cal State East Bay and Sonoma State on their first day of competition.
"We want to be one of the top two teams in our conference, to continue to improve over the season, get into the conference championship game and win the conference championship game," said Coach Jamey Wright of his goals for the team this season.
Being one of the top teams in the Western Water Polo Association has not been an extreme challenge for the UC Davis women over the past several years. The Aggies have finished in the top-three of the conference for the last seven consecutive years. In 2005, the Aggies finished second in the WWPA behind Loyola Marymount, which defeated UC Davis 8-4 in the conference tournament's championship game. The Ags also had five players named to All-WWPA teams including returning players Cassie Schaefer, Christi Raycraft and Katherine O'Rourke.
With the goal of winning conference championships in mind, as well as simply developing as a team, "we changed our weight program this year and it has assisted us in getting strong in our core strength and legs and I think being stronger in the water and your core strength are really important. The new program has been embraced by the team and I have never seen them work as hard as they are now, " explained Wright.
Specialization has also been a change made by the coaching staff this season. With each player having a specific role and needing to have varying skills to execute and dominate in their positions, Coach Wright has, "tried to structure our workouts so we can be more tasked oriented and people work each day work on skills that they specifically need to do well."
The main key to success for this year's team, however, may be a combination of experienced scorers, play makers and the addition of new speed and strong outside shooting.
"On this year's team we have a lot of returning scoring. We have a very fast team, we should be able to get a lot of transition goals."
The returning scoring Wright refers to comes in several forms, the first being last season's leading scorer, sophomore Christi Raycraft. Raycraft, in her freshman campaign, led the team in goals scored with 34 total on the season. "Raycraft had a school record in ejections drawn and was a leading scorer last year, she could play anywhere," said Wright.
Besides leading the team in goals, Raycraft also led in shots, steals and ejections drawn, for which she earned the school record that Wright referred to: 54 drawn ejections in a season, which beat out former Aggie Tiffany Hodgens by three. Raycraft had nine multi-goal games including a four goal game against eventual NCAA tournament qualifier Hawai'i.
Another prolific scorer returning for the Ags is junior Cassie Schaefer who finished last season as the fifth highest scorer for UC Davis with 26 goals while also leading the team in assists with 18. Schaefer posted six multi-goal games during the 2005 season and is expected to help lead the Aggies offensive efforts once again this season.
"Cassie is an aggressive attacker and a great outside shooter and good counter attacker," said Wright.
Another returning Aggie attacker is Casie Mota who saw substantial time last season as a freshman and scored 14 goals on the season. "Cassie played a ton of minutes last year, scored some big goals in some big games, plays great defense. She is extremely coachable and just a great athlete."
LIndsay Burcio and Jaclyn Loberg both return after seeing limited minutes in their sophomore campaigns to help give further depth to the attacker position. "Attacker is the way I want the person to approach the position, I want them to attack the defense."
Mary Lowe also returns for her second season with UC Davis after serving as a reserve player last year. Lowe, the Ags' resident left hander is one of, "our best outside shooters, has great legs and she puts a lot of heat on the ball," explains Wright.
Rounding out the returning attackers is senior co-captain Jessi Lafayette. Lafayette had sixteen goals with 11 assists last season and also collected 23 steals and 16 drawn ejections. Lafayette also posted five multi-goal games including two six-on-five goals in UC Davis' win over WWPA foe UC San Diego at the Davis Shootout.
Lafayette "had a great second half last season. We gave her a lot of playing time and she responded well by scoring a lot of goals, a lot of key goals. She is a very tough, tenacious player, she is a very good defensive player. We have great depth in the attacker position," remarked Wright.
New attackers being added to the Aggie lineup this year include Patricia Burdick. Burdick, who is described by Wright as "one of the fastest people on the team," redshirted last season but was an All-North Coast Section first team selection as well as Bay Valley Athletic League MVP during her senior season at Ygnacio Valley High School. Katrina Johnstone is another redshirt freshman being added to the lineup, Johnstone hails from Clayton Valley high school.
Freshman Lindsay Kiyama gains high regard by coach Wright heading into the first weekend of competition, "the sky is the limit for her. She is one of our fastest swimmers and she just blazes. She has great instincts, shoots the ball at 100 mph, shoots the ball very well. She should have a great season and a great career here." Kiyama also hails from Clayton Valley High School where she was an All-Bay Valley Athletic League first team selection twice over and a standout in swimming and basketball as well.
Sarah Odegard and Sofia Patronas round out the list of freshman attackers joining the team this year. According to Wright, "Sofia and Sarah should be outstanding, they could be as good of shooters as we have. Sofia also can go in (to center) and post up, so she can also make things happen in front of the goal."
"I think our biggest challenge is that our center players are very young and they are working hard and doing great and by the end of the season they are going to be great," expresses Wright.
The primary center for UC Davis this season will be junior co-captain Katherine O'Rourke. O'Rourke played center as well last year and was the second leading scorer for the Aggies last year with 33 goals O'Rourke also led the team in minutes played last season collecting 854 total which set a UC Davis record for minutes played in a season by a field player.
"Katherine is a great communicator, great motivator and a great teammate. She is one of our most fit athletes, works hard everyday, people know how hard she works and that gives her a lot of credibility."
Also spending some time in two-meter will be Ashley Greenwood, a sophomore who saw time as a reserve in her freshman campaign scoring nine goals in 31 games played.
Defense is another area the Aggies have significant depth in, "I think defender is a real strong position for us, we have Jessica Soza who played a lot of minutes for us last year." Soza, a sophomore, will serve as the primary center defender this season after finishing last season with 24 goals, 8 assists, 30 steals and a team-best 9 field blocks.
Vying for the spot of back-up defender will be Katie O'Neill, Megan Jimenez, Nicole Fisher and Emily Kitchens. O'Neill, who Wright describes as "feisty, aggressive and strong," saw action in several games last year as a reserve and also posted three multi-goal games. Jimenez and Fisher also each saw time in reserve rolls for UC Davis last season. Kitchens is the fifth freshman on the roster for this season and hails from Adolfo Camarillo high school where she earned All-Southern Section honors as a junior and senior.
The last line of defense for the Aggies will be their goalies. Lina Moore will return for her junior season after serving as the team's starting goalkeeper in 2005.
"Lina is a gamer, when it is game time she is very solid, very reliable, makes good decisions on her passing, communicates well and she does a good job."
Also seeing time in goal will be junior Amber Korner and freshman Diana Pivacek. "Amber Korner, has a lot of experience, we have started her in games and she has done great. Diana is doing a really good job, she has really strong legs and she is the tallest player by a lot, so she takes up a good amount of space in the cage," says Wright of his goalkeepers, "I feel good about our goalie situation. they are all good passers and all play good position and I would be comfortable staring any one of them."
With depth in every position and a crop of talented newcomers, the Aggies will be looking forward to having another successful season ahead of them. Another thing the Ags have to look forward this season is the possibility of playing in the NCAA Division I National Championships at their very own Schaal Aquatic Center. The tournament will be held on the UC Davis' campus in May.
"Obviously it would be a thrill to play in the NCAA's in their own pool. Making the NCAA's would be such an exhilarating experience no matter if they are here or if they were in China."
Though the NCAA's are in the near future, the present contains the beginning of what could prove to be a very exciting season for the Ags, "the first weekend you never know what to expect. You think you are at a particular place, but until you play that first game you have no clue, you are just guessing. We have specific goals for each game, I am going to look at those things more than I am going to look at the final score."
"We have a lot of returning experience that we didn't have last year. I feel less trepidation this time this year that I did this time last year. I think they have a much better grasp at this point in the season than we did last year on what's their role, what's expected of them front court and six on five but there is a lot more we can learn."
