2020 Swimming World Women’s Water Polo Previews: Collegiate Water Polo Association

Big Blue won a fourth CWPA title in 2019—and look to add a thumb ring this season. Photo Courtesy: CWPA

In a season of flux as a result of Olympic national team demands, one things appears rock-solid: that Michigan will again be the class of the Collegiate Water Polo Association’s women’s Division I bracket. Wolverine Head Coach Marcelo Leonardo has built a consistent winner in Ann Arbor’s by drawing top foreign and California talent to Canham Natatorium.

cwpa The result? Big Blue has won the past four Collegiate Water Polo Association titles, qualifying to the NCAA women’s tournament from 2016-19.

This is not to say that there aren’t title contenders in the CWPA’s premiere division. Princeton—which for four years enjoyed the security provided by now-Olympian Ashleigh Johnson—has been a constant pain in the Wolverines’ hide. But since Johnson graduated in 2017, the gap between Michigan and the rest of the conference has grown.

The Wolverines started off #7 in the CWPA preseason rankings, and there’s been no let-up in the first three weekends of play. Following are CWPA DI teams listed based upon the conference’s ranking.

Team Capsules:

Michigan is coming off a 2019 season in which it appeared in NCAAs for the fourth straight season. With a 23-9 overall record—8-0 in conference play—the Wolverines have captured every CWPA title since 2016. There are substantial changes in their line-up this season. Leonardo lost six players from its 2019 squad, the most important of which are Abby Andrews (57 goals, 71 assists, 47 steals) and Maddy Steere (55 goals, 42 assists) who are training with the Australia National Team ahead of the 2020 Olympics. Lost to graduation are Julia Sellers (team-high 65 goals) and Kim Johnson (31 goals, 63 exclusions drawn). Luckily, goalkeeper Heidi Ritner returns for her final season in Ann Arbor. Her 105 career starts, 80-25 and 722 career saves ranks second only to Betsy Armstrong, who went on from to win gold with the U.S. women’s team at the 2012 London Olympics. Senior Skyler Pyle (21 goals, 19 assists), junior Maddie O’Reilly (16 goals, 16 assists), and sophomore Erin Neustrom (30 goals, 60 exclusions drawn) return, and will be expected to lead eight freshmen, including Sophie Tovani from San Ramon Valley High School in Danville, California and Anne Rankin of Newport Beach High School, also in California.

Key Match-Up: Indiana, March 25, Bloomington, IN

In 2019 Princeton went 21-9 and reached the CWPA Championship Game for a third straight season. The Tigers won eight games against nationally ranked foes, finished No. 15 in the final CWPA Varsity Poll and are the last CWPA team to beat Michigan—in 2018 when they beat won in double overtime. Head Coach Derek Ellingson returns top scorers Amy Castellano (74 goals), Laura Larkin (45 goals, 21 assists) and goalie Marissa Webb (222 saves; CWPA All-Conference Second Team). In fact, Webb may be key to the Tigers’ season. They gave up 227 goals last year, best in the conference. As the adage goes: defense wins. In his first recruiting class Ellingson has brought in four freshmen, including Maisie McPherson of Mater Dei High School in Dana Point, California and Genevieve Fraipont of La Canada High School in La Canada, California. They’ll be called on to replace Lindsey Kelleher (46 goals, 51 assists) and Eliza Britt (42 goals, 30 assists, 27 ejections drawn).

Key Match-Up: Loyola Marymount, March 21, Los Angeles, CA

harvard_universitycrimson Harvard Head Coach Ted Minnis returns Sofia Carrera-Justiz (41 goals, 53 assists), Mathilde Ribordy (38 goals, 21 assists) and Grace Thawley (54 goals, 60 exclusions drawn). Zoe Banks (127 saves) will step in between the pipes while defender Inde Halligan will return to a Harvard defense that held opponents to an 8.24 goals per game average. That was with Sam Acker (145 saves) playing in goal for Harvard’s toughest opponents. She’s now graduated, as is Kristen Hong (74 goals, 40 assists) the Crimsons all-time leading scorer with 275 goals. Minnis brought in two offensive players—Brooke Hourigan from Orange Lutheran High School in Newport Beach, California and Jaiden Miller from Coquitlan, British Columbia—to pick up the scoring slack.

Key Match-Up: Princeton, April 4, Cambridge, MA

Bucknell Bison Logo In the Furano sisters, Bucknell has a potent 1-2 punch. Ally (123 goals, 55 assists) and Paige (32 goals, 36 assists) accounted for almost half of the Bison’s 405 goals scored in 2019 as they went 25-12—4-2 in CWPA—their most wins in a season since 2008. Factor in Kali Hyham (60 goals, 65 exclusions drawn) and goalie Georgia Lewis (239 saves) and Head Coach John McBride’s staring side is comparable to anyone’s in the conference—outside of Michigan’s. With eight freshmen coming in for 2020, the Bison will look to replace Emily Konishi (65 goals, 58 steals) and Sarah Mooney (28 goals, 37 steals); likely newcomers to step up include Sheila Tomlin (Coronado High School, Coronado, California) and Megan LaCroix (Saint Francis High School, Saratoga, California).

Key Match-Up: Michigan, March 1, Ann Arbor, MI

brown In 2019, Brown won only one match against a Top-25 ranked team in 13 attempts while going 21-13 on the season. This season, there’s 10 such games. To change this script, Brown Head Coach Felix Mercado returns sophomore Katie Klein (54 goals); junior Carissa Perez (33 goals, 59 assists, 32 steals), sophomore Dagmara Czajka (37 goals, 51 exclusions drawn) and goalie Lauren Burns (208 saves). The difference in this team from last year will be the six freshmen Mercado has recruited, all from California. Headlining this group are Claire Pisani of the Castilleja School in Redwood City, California and Katie Dvonch of Los Alamitos High School, Seal Beach, California. They’ll need to replace McKenna Miller (33 goals, 27 assists, 45 steals) who graduated in 2019.

Key Match-Up: Marist, March 7, Cambridge, MA

George Washington will need to tackle its offensive challenges. The Colonials scored a conference-low 174 goals last season; it’s defense was sound, surrendering only 247, but the -73 goal differential was worse than every other team except for St. Francis University. Alana Ponce (48 goals and 16 assists), with 113 goals over her first two collegiate seasons, returns, as does Juliette Belanger (40 goals, 27 ejections drawn). Kira Bruno (14 goals, 9 assists) fourth on the team in points and Allison DeCicco (9 goals) return. Moaddeli (32 goals, 28 assists) and goalie Runyon (112 saves in 2019) graduated. Freshman Mackenzie Matheny from Lauriston Girls’ School in Melbourne, Australia is the only goalie on Head Coach Barry King’s roster. For offensive help, King will look to Marina Daroca Bazán, a graduate student who transferred this year from Whittier, and Amanda Reeder, a red-shirt freshman from Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Coto de Caza, California.

Key Match-Up: St. Francis University, April 5, Princeton, NJ

sfu4 For St. Francis University, leading scorer from 2019, Ani Aghakhanian (57 goals, 23 steals), has graduated from a program that went 10-26—and 0-6 in CWPA play—in 2019. Breanna Dupperon (49 goals, 25 steals), the Red Flash second-leading scorer, is back. What will change the narrative in Loretto is the arrival of 11 freshmen, remaking Head Coach Jay O’Neil’s roster. Taylor Halbauer of Mother Maragret Mary High School in Edmonton, Canada, Addison Williams of Sanger High School in Clovis, California and goalie Heather Jacobson of Presentation High School in San Jose, California have already improved SFU.

Key Match-Up: Cal Baptist, February, 6, Pomona, CA.

Outlook:

In 2019, the Wolverines beat ranked opponents 21 times; they also beat three Top Ten opponents—Arizona Stats, Pacific and UC Irvine. By contrast, none of their CWPA foes beat a Top Ten team last season; the best any of them did was Princeton, which won eight games against ranked foes, including Ivy foe Harvard, ranked #15 at the time. The Tigers did advance to the 2019 CWPA Championship match, where they were beaten decisively by the Wolverines. This season, Michigan has already beaten five ranked foes, including #9 UC Santa Barbara. The only other teams in the conference that have played a top 25 team are Princeton—which has lost both games—and Brown, which last weekend dropped a 17-11 decision to #18 (T) Wagner.

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This is not to say that there aren’t serious challengers for the Wolverines’ crown. Princeton will play a tough schedule, with 12 ranked opponents. Harvard plays ten ranked opponents, including #3 Hawai’i. But it’s difficult to imagine—even in a season when there’s more parity due to the absence of national team athletes—that Michigan will falter.

The question for every CWPA team chasing the Wolverines: are they narrowing the gap between top and bottom? By that measure, St. Francis is doing the best job. The Red Flash’s O’Neil brought in a slew of freshmen, including a core of Canadians, and have a real shot at overtaking the Colonials, who have four true freshmen and an over-reliance on the productive Ponce.

The clump of Princeton, Harvard, Brown and Bucknell may sort itself out by who’s returning players step up. In the case of the Crimson, this is absolutely true, because they lost the best scorer in their history and added only three newcomers. one of whom is a goalie. The Tigers also lost major scoring contributors, but appear to have more depth than their prime CWPA rivals and added four freshmen. Brown has to prove they can beat ranked teams and Ivy opponents—one win in nine contests against Harvard and Princeton the past four years. Bucknell has a strong starting line-up, but depth will be the difference between a second-place or fifth-place finish.

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