Women's Water Polo: New season brings conference shift

This year, the Collegiate Water Polo Association changed the organization of the women’s water polo teams. Switching from three to two divisions by eliminating the Northern division, schools are now classified only by the labels South and West. The division champion will be decided by regular-season results, eliminating the traditional division tournament. In addition, for the first time ever, Eastern Championships will be all-inclusive. Regardless of performance, all teams will be invited to compete, with the tournament seeding decided by regular-season results.

In the Southern Division, Princeton is joined by Brown, Harvard, George Washington University, Salem International University and University of Maryland. The two teams to watch this season, however, are Michigan University and Indiana University. As the three-time defending champion at Easterns and the host of the NCAA Championships this year, Michigan is hoping for a season that will culminate in another Eastern Championship and a bid for NCAAs. Indiana, which placed second to Michigan at Easterns last year, will be this year’s host of the Championships. With six starters returning, they hope a home-pool advantage will give them the edge they need for an NCAA bid.

Princeton has been dubbed the wild card as they enter the season with what Barry King, Indiana’s head coach, calls a “tremendous freshman class.” According to him, how these new players adjust to the college game will be integral to the success of the team.

The Tigers are led by head coach Luis Nicolao who earned his fifth Eastern Coach of the Year award this past fall in the men’s water polo season.

“We are really excited about this season. I can only hope that our freshman will have a large impact. I think we have a really balanced squad,” Nicolao said. “I know, looking around our league, there are a lot of strong new players.”

On Saturday, the No. 16 Tigers will face off against George Washington and Brown. Non-division games on Sunday will be against Colorado State at 8 a.m. and No. 19 University of the Pacific at 1:30 p.m.

Similar to Princeton, George Washington will be bringing many new faces as they have seven new freshman. In addition, head coach Scott Reed believes this year’s team is one of the more balanced of his career at George Washington.

Brown beat Princeton last year at the ECAC Championships. However, since then, it has graduated two of its all-time top scorers and an All-American goalie.

For all three teams in the Southern Division, the Saturday games will be season openers. Freshman utility Molly McBee said she was excited about this weekend’s kick-off.

“I really can’t wait. I am used to playing water polo games year-round. It is very different coming to college and practicing so much with a team that I haven’t competed with before,” McBee said. “Games have a completely different feel. So, I am really excited to see how our team will work together.”