DAVIS, Calif. – UC Davis women's water polo welcomes Sacramento native and new assistant coach Xanthe Plescia to the staff as the Aggies begin to turn focus on 2025.
 
"Xanthe understands the competitive spirt and dedication it takes to win in the Big West," said head coach Kandace Waldthaler. "Her knowledge of what it is like to compete as a student-athlete will be a huge addition to the staff and we are ecstatic to have Xanthe join the Aggies."
 
Plescia joins the Aggies as former head coach for the C. K. McClatchy High School team. In the duration of her six years with the program, the Lions have been victorious in all but one of the Metro League Conference Championships.
 
"It was a natural decision for me to come to Davis," said Plescia. "My passion for coaching and teaching young women drives me. It's allowed me to invest in the personal and athletic development of student-athletes and I am truly committed to helping them reach their fullest potential."
 
The first few years before she earned the title of head coach, she worked as the assistant coach to her father Stephen Plescia, who had run the team for 15 consecutive years.
 
She was also the 2022 recipient for the Doc Hunkler Award in the central zone for her work with the American River Water Polo Club. This prestigious award applauds coaches working with the scholastic development of female teams.
 
Prior to her professional coaching career, Plescia attended fellow Big West school Hawaii. As a student athlete, she competed in back-to-back Big West Championship games in 2015 and 2016.
 
She helped the Rainbow Wahine to victory in the 2015 Big West Championship game. And in that same year, her team made an NCAA Tournament run, going against big-name schools in the water polo world like Stanford and UCLA.