Tigers Travel to National Tournament
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (May 1, 2009) – In the pre-season women’s water polo Division III poll, the Occidental College Tigers held the No. 5 spot. After sinking to No. 7 in week six, they made a break for the top, climbing to the No. 1 spot in week 12 and have maintained a No. 3 National ranking since that time.
Today the Tigers will travel to Thousand Oaks, Calif. where at a familiar venue, the Samuelson Aquatics Center, the black and orange will fight for the right to call themselves the 2009 Collegiate III National Champions.
Occidental (16-11) is one of eight teams playing in the tournament, hosted by Cal Lutheran, who won the 2009 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title and will travel to the University of Maryland to play in the NCAA Division I Tournament May 8-10.
Oxy will jump in the pool at 9:20 a.m. on Friday morning to kick off a weekend of water polo play with the ultimate prize, a National title, in sight.
Playing on a big stage is nothing new for the Tigers who were named the Collegiate III National Champions in 2000. They also advanced to the championship game in 2006, falling to the University of Redlands.
Joining the Tigers at the Collegiate III National Tournament will be a pair of SCIAC foes in No. 2 Pomona-Pitzer and No. 5 Redlands. The entire field also includes Cal State University East Bay, Washington & Jefferson, UC Santa Cruz, Grove City and Macalester. While PP and UR find themselves in Pool “A”, Occidental will play in Pool “B” with an opportunity for two SCIAC teams to meet in the finals.
This season sophomore Karie Nickle has led the squad offensively and defensively making her presence felt throughout the course of every game. She has scored 65 goals and assisted on 38 more to lead the team. She has also drawn 27 ejections, which is third to senior captain Kelly Curtain (82) and sophomore Julie Monday (33).
On the defensive end Nickle has recorded a team-high 11 field blocks while picking up 69 steals putting her second to freshman Tessa Bailey-Findley who has 85. In her freshman campaign Bailey-Findley is also top three in scoring and assists with 41 and 37, respectively. Monday, primarily a center, has scored 50 times for the Tigers. Coming up huge for Oxy all season is senior goalie Laura Simanonok who has recorded 188 saves in front of the cage.
The Tigers open the tournament against Grove City College in the morning before an afternoon meeting with Macalester at 4:40 p.m. Oxy has faced and defeated (11-4 and 14-5) both of these teams already this season. Saturday at noon Oxy will meet the Banana Slugs, who they have yet to play, in the pool. The outcome of the first round of action will determine their seed for the final two games.
