March 5, 2007
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THIS WEEK
Mar. 10 - SANTA CLARA, Noon
Mar. 11 - INDIANA, Noon
LAST WEEK
Mar. 3 - UC SANTA BARBARA (W, 9-5)
Mar. 4 - vs. CS San Bernardino (UCSC Slugfest) (W, 9-2)
Mar. 4 - vs. Santa Clara (UCSC Slugfest) (W, 11-9)
NOTES
UC Davis (13-4), which moved up two spots to No. 8 in the new National Collegiate Top 20 last Wednesday, posted three wins over the weekend... The Aggies overcame a relatively slow start to beat No. 12 UC Santa Barbara, 9-5, in Saturday's home tilt... UC Davis then competed in Day Two only of the UCSC Slug Fest, beating WWPA members Cal State San Bernardino (9-2) and Santa Clara (11-9)... UC Davis is now 7-0 against WWPA members, 2-1 vs. members of the future Big West Conference... The 13-4 start is the program's best since achieving varsity status in 1997... UC Davis had started 11-6 in 2001 and 2004.
Junior Laura Uribe led the Aggies with three goals vs. UCSB, converting a Christi Raycraft-drawn five-meter penalty, then scoring on two outside shots in the third period... Senior Katherine O'Rourke, who was selected as the previous week's WWPA Player of the Week, scored four goals in the win over SCU... O'Rourke took over the team lead in goals (13) through 17 games, bringing her career total to 128... She needs 13 to catch Kim Parker (1998-2001) for second all-time at UC Davis... Senior Amber Korner posted 13 saves in the Santa Clara win, her sixth game with 10 or more saves this season.
UP NEXT: The Aggies begin a three-game homestand that spans the week off for final examinations... UC Davis will rematch with Santa Clara on Saturday, then Indiana on Sunday... The 15th-ranked Broncos went 3-1 at the Slug Fest with the Aggies providing the only setback... Sophomores Amy Lamb and Brianna Anderson each scored hat tricks against UC Davis... Junior Emily Bonk scored three goals in CS East Bay and Colorado State... The Hoosiers held at fifth in the Feb. 28 Collegiate Water Polo Association poll, and dropped from No. 20 to the "receiving votes" list in the national rankings... IU has been idle since going 2-2 at Maryland's Terrapin Invitational on February 18... The Hoosiers beat the host Terps and George Washington on the first day of action, then lost to Hartwick and Princeton in the Sunday portion of the tourney... Senior center Melissa Soria scored 10 goals in the two wins.
HEAD COACH JAMEY WRIGHT:
"Our bench play is really amazing right now. I hate to even refer to them as the bench, because they would be star players on a lot of teams. I am extremely confident that the entire team is understanding their roles. Most teams' bench players are subs because they are not as fast as the starters. Most teams start their fastest players. So we're playing a second group that is dramatically faster than the other team's second group. Overall, our second group is probably faster than our starting group."
"Think about who our subs are: Madeline Stephenson, Ashley Chandler and Lindsay Kiyama are really fast. That kind of onslaught wore out Santa Barbara. Then in the third quarter, Laura Uribe had those two goals. So I feel we wore them out in the first half, took advantage in the second half and got a good shot in the arm offensively from Laura."
"In the Santa Barbara game and the first three quarters of the Santa Clara game, I thought our 5-on-6 defense was really solid. They had to chuck some in from the cheap seats. There are two ways to defend the 6-on-5. One is to storm the offense and get them out rhythm. Make them rush a shot. The other is to play it straight-up. Each player blocks their own lane and the goalie gets everything in the middle. If they other team can find a way to squeeze it in there, more power to them, but I don't think they can. It's a fundamental departure that we started last year. In the beginning of the year, I almost wanted to go back to just storming. In the first two days of practice last week, all we did was shot-blocking. The team loved it. They were fired up. I would say a shot block is like taking a charge in basketball. You have to get in there, and it hurts, but you've sacrificed yourself for a good defensive play."
