ASU Water Polo Heads to MPSF Championships

IRVINE, Calif. April 25. #11 Sun Devils meet #10 Long Beach State in opening round game. Following its fifth upset of a Top 8 team this season, the No. 11 Arizona State University water polo team heads to the 2006 MPSF Championships this weekend hosted by UC Irvine in Irvine, Calif. The Sun Devils (13-11, 5-7 MPSF) are the No. 7 seed in the tournament that runs Thursday through Sunday and will meet No. 10-seed Long Beach State at 1:45 p.m. Thursday in the opening round game.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Goalie Caylinn Wallace was selected as the MPSF Mikasa Player of the Week (April 23) following her solid performance in the team's 5-4 upset win over No. 8 San Diego State Saturday in Tempe. Wallace recorded seven saves and made four steals to lead the Sun Devils to their fifth defeat of a Top 8 ranked foe this season.

TOURNEY INFO

The 2006 MPSF Tournament runs Thursday through Sunday at UC Irvine with all 13 conference teams competing in the event. Although all 13 teams will be on hand, the tournament will only play through the Top 8 places. If a team loses Thursday, they will play just once more (Friday) in the tournament.

MPSF HISTORY

ASU will be making its third trip to the MPSFs and will look to build upon the success it attained each of the last two years. Overall, the Sun Devils are 3-4 in the event after going 2-2 last year and 1-2 in 2004, finishing 10th in both.

SEVENTH

Thanks to another upset victory over the weekend, the Sun Devils improved to 5-7 overall in the MPSF to finish the regular season tied for seventh place in the standings. Based on head-to-head wins over both San Jose State and San Diego State this season, the Sun Devils earned the No. 7 seed in the tournament with SJSU taking No. 8 and SDSU finishing with the No. 9 seed. The finish for the Sun Devils continued a trend of improvement for the program after placing tied for ninth (12th seed) last year and 11th (11th seed) in 2004.

IN THE POLLS

The latest National Top 20 ranking was release April 19 with the Sun Devils holding onto the No. 11 position for the second week in a row.

KEEP ON CLIMBING

For the second year in a row, Arizona State improved upon its MPSF regular season finish, this year coming in seventh following a 12th-place showing in 2005 and an 11th-place finish in their first season with the league (2004).

IT'S YOU AGAIN!

For the second year in a row, the Sun Devils will open the MPSF Championships by facing Long Beach State. Last year, the fifth-seeded 49ers defeated the 12th-seeded Sun Devils, 8-4. ASU rebounded with a 6-5 defeat of Pacific before taking down eighth-seeded UC Irvine, 9-7. In the final game of the tournament, the Sun Devils fell to seventh-seeded UC Santa Barbara, 7-5, to finish 10th in the 13-team tournament.

HAPPY TO UPSET

Arizona State entered last weekend ranked No. 11 in the national poll and faced its 14th opponent ranked in the Top 10 this season. As it had done on four other occasions, the Sun Devils scored the upset, this time handing No. 8 San Diego State a 5-4 defeat. During the 2006 season, the Sun Devils also recorded upsets over Hawaii two times, once when the Wahine were ranked No. 4 (8-5 at Stanford Invitational) and once when ranked No. 5 (8-7 at home). The win over Hawaii is the highest-ranked foe the Sun Devils have ever defeated. Then, on April 8, ASU headed to the Bay Area and came home with a 5-3 defeat of No. 8 San Jose State before closing out the regular season last Saturday with a 5-4 upset of No. 8 San Diego State.

BIG GAME PERFORMERS

In Arizona State's five upset wins this season, two players have turned in solid performances. On defense, goalie Caylinn Wallace came up big as she halted 13 shots in three of the games and tallied 53 total stops in the five games (10.6 per contest) while allowing just 25 goals (5.0 per game). She also recorded 13 steals, including four in each of the last two wins. Offensively, rookie Rowie Webster has led the charge as she recorded 13 total goals with one four-goal performance and two other three-goal showings.

HAT COLLECTION

Despite the low-scoring defeat of No. 8 San Diego State over the weekend, Rowie Webster found a way to add to her hat-trick count this season as she picked up her ninth in 24 games by scoring three goals against the Aztecs. On the year, Webster recorded two or more goals in 18 games, scoring four goals on two occasions, three in seven games and two in nine others to help her reach 48 goals on the year. She needs just three scores at the MPSF event to break the program's single-season scoring record of 51 set in 2002 by Kim Yost.

PLAYING IN IRVINE

The Sun Devils are 1-3 all-time in games played at UC Irvine's Anteater Aquatics Complex, the site of the 2006 MPSF Championships. Arizona State fell, 5-4, to CS Northridge in 2003 before rebounding the same day to down the host Anteaters, 7-5. Then, in 2004, the Sun Devils dropped a 7-6 decision at UCI before falling in Irvine again this season, 9-6.

AGAINST THE MPSF – PART I

Arizona State built an 8-10 record against MPSF foes this season and finished 5-7 in the games that counted against the conference standings. Outside of conference action, the Sun Devils started with a victory over Hawaii before falling in three straight: California, UCLA and San Diego State. From there, ASU rebounded nicely as it won the final two non-conference meetings with MPSF foes as it defeated both UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara.

AGAINST THE MPSF – PART II

In the three years the Sun Devils have been members of the MPSF, the team has built a 10-24 record while going 8-9 at home. Arizona State's record could have been better, but it holds a 3-9 record in one-goal contests, including three on the road this season.

SO CLOSE

Arizona State is 13-11 on the year with four of those loses coming by one-goal margins, including twice in the last five games played. So far this season, the Sun Devils defeated No. 5 Hawaii, 8-7, but have lost its last four one-goal games including 6-5 at No. 10 UC Santa Barbara, 7-6 at No. 4 Loyola Marymount, 8-7 at home against No. 6 California and 7-6 in overtime at No. 12 Long Beach State.

ROOKIE ROWIE ROLLING

Rowie Webster has certainly made a name for herself in her first collegiate season with the Sun Devils as she has added her name to several season and career record lists. In the freshman season record, Webster ranks first in both goals (48) and points (63) while sitting seventh in assists (15). On the overall season lists, she ranks third in goals scored (48) and points (63) while her 48 goals scored also rank as the 10th-most in a career at ASU.

MORE ROOKIES

Rookie Addison Doud also has added her name to the record lists as she ranks eighth on the overall season goals scored board with 35 while standing third in freshman season goals (35) and seventh in freshman season points (43).

BOWER CLIMBING

Ashley Bower scored three times over the weekend of April 8-9 to bring her season total to 25 and her career total to 80, making her just the third Sun Devil to record 80 or more goals. Katie Hedley leads the all-time scoring category with 95 career goals while Katie Davis is second with 89. Bower and Hedley are both juniors and will look to become the first Sun Devils to break the century mark in career goals.

SCORING LEADER

Rowie Webster continues to lead the team in scoring this year as she has found the back of the cage 48 times in 2006, the third-most in a single season. Heading into the conference tournament, Webster would need one more to tie for second and three more to tie Kim Yost (2002) for the season record of 51. Webster not only has been solid at scoring this year, she also has set up several goals as she leads the team in assists with 15 to give her the most points on the roster with 63. The record of 83 points in a season set by Yost may be out of her reach, but if she manages seven more this season, she will become only the second player to reach the 70-point plateau.

AWESOME AUSSIES

Two of the Top 3 scorers on the roster this season hail from "The Land Down Under" as Melbourne native Rowie Webster and Bondi Beach native Ashley Bower continue to power the Sun Devil offense in 2006. Webster is the team's leading goal scorer (48), assist leader (15) and point scorer (63) while Bower is third in both goals (25) and points (35) while ranking tied for second with 10 assists.

BRICK WALL(ACE)

Sophomore goalie Caylinn Wallace continues to anchor the Sun Devil defense as she once again has posted solid numbers in the cage. This year, she has halted 200 shots, making a save 54 percent of the time, while recording 8.33 saves per game. Last year, when she was named the goalie on the MPSF All-Freshman Team, she stopped 243 shots (60 percent) and recorded 9.35 saves per game. The big difference between the two seasons is the number of games played. This year, ASU has played in just 24 compared to 32 in 2005.

ON TOP

Katie Hedley is now the new scoring queen of the Sun Devil program with 95 career goals. At the UCSB Gaucho Invitational (Feb. 25-26), Hedley tied the previous record of 89 (Katie Davis, 2003-04) when she scored a pair of goals in Arizona State's 11-3 defeat of Brown. In the next game, she scored once in a 10-8 defeat of No. 13 UC Irvine and then once again in an 8-6 victory over No. 11 UC Santa Barbara in the ninth-place contest. She now stands five shy of becoming the first Sun Devil to record 100 goals in a career.

LIGHTING UP THE SCORE BOARD

The 18 goals scored by the Sun Devils over Pacific marks the second-highest output in team history, with only a 20-2 defeat of Marist on January 24, 2004, at the Michigan Invitational topping that output. The 18-4 decision, however, did set a few records as the goal total was the most Arizona State has scored in an MPSF contest (old mark was a 13-4 victory over UOP on March 14, 2004); the most scored in any home game (old mark was a 14-0 defeat of UC Santa Cruz on February 1, 2003) and ties the mark for largest margin of victory in a home game at 14 (14-0 vs. UCSC in 2003).

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING – PART I

In the final statistics release of the regular season, several Sun Devils once again appear on the list, including Rowie Webster, who ranks fifth in the MPSF in scoring average with a 2.00 per game tally. She also ranks seventh in overall goals scored with 48. Joining her on the scoring chart is fellow freshman, Addison Doud, who ranks 19th with a 1.46 average after scoring 35 goals in 24 games. Defensively, Caylinn Wallace ranks third in saves per game with an average of 8.33 while her 7.17 goals allowed average ranks 10th. Her 200 saves on the year also ranks fourth in the conference.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING – PART II

Also in the MPSF statistics, the Sun Devil teams ranks highly among the conference teams on the defensive end as the team's 8.63 saves per game average ranks third and its 207 total saves ranks fourth. On the offensive side of the ball, the Sun Devils have scored 189 goals this season, the ninth-most in the MPSF, while its 7.88 goals per game average ranks 10th in the conference.

A BIT OF HISTORY

At the Stanford Invitational, the then-No. 16 Sun Devils recorded a 2-2 record to place seventh with their two victories coming over Top 10 teams as ASU defeated No. 4 Hawaii, 8-5, in the opening contest before closing out the weekend with a 13-7 defeat of No. 7 Michigan. The Sun Devils were rewarded for their performances as they climbed eight spots in the latest National Collegiate Women's Top 20 poll to No. 8 this week. The ranking marks the first time the Sun Devils have been a part of the Top 10 in the national rankings and their highest ranking bettering the No. 14 standing attained in week three of the 2004 season.

SCOUTING: LONG BEACH STATE

After opening the season 5-1, the 49ers concluded their season with a 15-12 overall record and a 4-8 mark in the MPSF to place 10th. Long Beach State, which lost its last two games (home to Hawaii and to UCLA), is led by senior Cassie Azevedo, who leads the league in scoring with a 2.35 per game average (54 goals in 23 games). Ken Lindgren's team is ranked 11th in the MPSF in scoring with a 6.89 per game average while their 7.07 saves per games ranks ninth in the league.

IN THE SERIES

Arizona State and Long Beach State have faced one another seven times with the 49ers taking all seven games. The last time out, the Sun Devils took a 5-2 halftime lead on the road before falling behind, 6-5, late in the fourth quarter. After tying the game at six and taking the contest to overtime, the Sun Devils were held without a goal and LBSU won, 7-6.

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

Senior Tessa Wyborny and junior Raelyn Ritchie were selected as the captains for the 2006 team. Wyborny is set to start her fourth year with the program while Ritchie will begin her third as a member of the Arizona State program.

ALL-CONFERENCE

Caylinn Wallace returns for her second season this year following a remarkable rookie campaign that was capped with her earning a place on the All-MPSF Freshman team, becoming just the second Sun Devil player to earn a post season conference honor. Wallace set the school record for saves in a game with 22 in an 8-7 overtime upset of No. 8 UC Santa Barbara last year.

MONA PLUMMER AQUATIC CENTER

The Mona Plummer Aquatic Center serves as the home venue for both the water polo and men's and women's swimming and diving programs. Opened in July, 1981, the plant consists of three pools- an Olympic-size, 50 meter by 25 yards, seven-foot deep competition pool with a movable bulkhead; a 25-yard, 18-foot diving well; and a 25-yard eight-lane warm-up pool. The complex also offers a diving tower. The tower has three platforms (5, 7.5 and 10 meters), four springboards and a pair of 1- and 3-meter boards, which flank the tower.

NEXT TIME OUT

Depending upon the team's finish at the MPSF Championships, the Sun Devils will have to wait until May 1 when the NCAA announces the selection of the eight teams that will compete in the NCAA Championships.

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