Colorado Springs, CO\u2014After playing key roles in the rise of the U.S. women\u2019s water polo team in 2000, sharpshooters Brenda Villa and Coralie Simmons were named as the 2000 United Airlines\/U.S. Water Polo\u2019s female co-Players of the Year. Both will be honored, along with male recipients Chris Oeding and Wolf Wigo, at the USWP Awards Luncheon in January.<\/p>\n
\tBoth athletes played critical parts in the team\u2019s rise from last-minute qualifiers for the Olympics to silver medal status in September.<\/p>\n
\tVilla and Simmons tuned up for the Olympics with shining performances at the Holiday Cup in July, guiding the U.S. to a squeaky clean, undefeated,
\nfirst-place finish. Villa\u2019s 10-goal eruption was only outdone by Simmons, whose 13 goals netted her Most Valuable Offensive Player honors.<\/p>\n
\tAt this year\u2019s Olympic Games, Villa supplanted Simmons as the team\u2019s top offensive producer, scoring nine goals to Simmons\u2019 eight, including four against Kazakhstan. And when it was all over, the U.S. women had secured their spot in the history books as the sport\u2019s first-ever silver medallist.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s nice having two players on the team that are such weapons,\u201d said head coach Guy Baker. \u201cOpponents had it rough because they may be able to stop one of them, but they could never shut them both down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAnd what\u2019s more, is that at 23 and 20, respectively, Simmons and Villa are just getting their feet wet in their careers.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThis comes as a big surprise,\u201d said Villa. \u201cWe\u2019re on a team where everyone comes from somewhere that they were a superstar. So this is a big honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAn added bonus for both athletes, who are also good friends, is sharing the honor with each other.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI am honored to receive this award and especially with teammate, Brenda Villa,\u201d said Simmons. \u201cShe is an awesome teammate, player, and friend and I am glad we have many more years together!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Colorado Springs, CO\u2014After playing key roles in the rise of the U.S. women\u2019s water polo team in 2000, sharpshooters Brenda Villa and Coralie Simmons were named as the 2000 United<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[2125,556,1756,178,3873,2766,8799,237,411,8800,3315,238,2473,62,559],"class_list":["post-1982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz","tag-brenda-villa","tag-chris-oeding","tag-guy-baker","tag-head-coach","tag-kazakhstan","tag-offensive-player","tag-offensive-producer","tag-olympic-games","tag-player","tag-scoring-nine-goals","tag-simmons","tag-the-olympics","tag-united-airlines","tag-united-states","tag-wolf-wigo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n