Jan. 31, 2006
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THIS WEEK
Wednesday, Feb. 1 - at Cal, 4 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 4 - SAN JOSE STATE, 12PM
Sunday, Feb. 5 - at UC Santa Cruz, 12 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 5 - at Cal State Monterey Bay, 4 p.m.
LAST WEEK
Sunday, Jan. 29 - Won vs. Cal State East Bay, 18-1
Sunday, Jan. 29 - Won vs. Sonoma State, 17-3
NOTES
The No. 13 UC Davis women's water polo team opened the 2006 season last weekend with two wins at home at Schaal Aquatics Center... The Aggies defeated Cal State East Bay 18-1 in a late morning game before defeating Sonoma State 17-3 later in the day... Sophomre Christi Raycraft led the way against the Pioneers posting a hat trick in her first game of the season while ten other Aggies also posted goals in the match-up, including multiple goals from freshmen Lindsay Kiyama and Sofia Patronas... Against Sonoma State, junior Katherine O'Rourke led the Aggies with four goals while sophomore Ashley Greenwood scored a hat trick... Greenwood was the leading scorer for the day with five goals scored between the two games... Kiyama posted two more goals against the Seawolves giving her four goals between her first two collegiate games... With the wins, the Aggies start the season with a 2-0 overall record and a 2-0 Western Water Polo Association record.
UPCOMING OPPONENTS
The Aggies have a busy week ahead of them with four games on the schedule. First up on the itinerary is Cal, which has been ranked No. 6 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association's preseason coaches' poll. The Bears will open their season against the Aggies for the second consecutive year, last season Cal defeated UC Davis 8-2. The Bears finished the 2005 season as the No. 5 team in the very competitive Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and had an overall season record of 18-10. Cal, who will be guided by the brand new coaching staff of Richard Corso and Serela Kay, is led by returning All-Americans Elise Windes and Allison Gold.
On Saturday the Ags will host the No. 12 San Jose State Spartans for a noon match-up at Schaal Aquatics Center. The Spartans opened their season last Saturday against bay area rival Santa Clara, the Spartans defeated the Broncos 10-6 to start their season with a 1-0 record. San Jose State has nine returning letterwinners from the 2005 team that finished No. 9 in the MPSF and earned a 11-19 season record. On Sunday UC Davis will travel to Santa Cruz to take on WWPA opponent UC Santa Cruz at noon before traveling to Cal State Monterey Bay for an afternoon game. The Banana Slugs opened up their season to Cal State East Bay and suffered a 5-8 loss at the hands of the Pioneers. The Otters split a pair of season openers last Saturday as they fell 17-7 to Santa Clara and then rebounded and defeated Cal State Maritime15-5 later in the afternoon.
HEAD COACH Jamey Wright
"It is always tricky to assess our performance when the score is lopsided, but I thought it was outstanding that we were able to continue to play sharp throughout the entire game. The tendency is to get sloppy and one issue I was worried about was us forcing passes, there were several situations where we needed to be patient. I was real happy with our center play of course it was slightly easier defense than we will have Wednesday (against Cal). I think Katherine (O'Rourke) and Ashley (Greenwood) both did a great job of holding position, drawing ejections and getting shots off. I also think our freshman did a good job, Kiyama was countering well and Sofia (Patronas) did well. Any game where you have ten people scoring you know you are playing well. I wanted to build confidence in the new players and from that perspective it was a productive weekend."
"I think (against Cal) the hardest thing is how we will respond to hard, aggressive, feisty pressure. We are going to need to be methodical in our ball movement and aggressive in releasing. Cal will be a good chance to play against tough defense and will set us up well to play against San Jose on Saturday."
