The UCSD Lady Tritons came back from a restful winter break and they are starting to prepare for the upcoming tournaments. With some new faces and skills in the water, the Lady Tritons have a bright and competitive season ahead of them. Cathleen “Pup” Nguyen was promoted to captain recently and under her leadership with Gaia “Killer Queen” Hinds, they will pave the path for the rest of this team to go to nationals. In order to prepare for the upcoming tournaments, the team travelled to Los Angeles and Orange County to play a scrimmage against University of La Verne and Chapman University. ULV and CU are both very competitive NCAA Division III teams and it gave the Lady Tritons a great learning experience.

In the scrimmage against the La Verne Leopards, the Lady Tritons had a strong start with Pup making the first goal of the game. With quick rotations, each player of the team had a similar amount of playing time to gain more exposure of playing the game. The Lady Tritons were able to hold off the Leos with their unity and teamwork, but they ultimately fell to the Leos with a score of 6-13. Leading the scoreboard was Pup with 2 goals and then followed by Kimmie Holland, Gaia Hinds, Emma Cooper, and Evie Gedminas with 1 goal per person. The Leopards were kind enough to host the team and this was a competitive match for both teams.

At Chapman University, the Panthers were evenly matched with the Lady Tritons. Without keeping track of the score officially, the two teams equally scored goals. The Panthers were pressing out the Tritons on high side lanes, forcing the Tritons to drive through and create opportunities for goals. The Tritons were anticipating the counters from the Panthers, trying to cut them off and steal the ball back. At last, the goalies, Lian “Brick” Lumada and Jayna “Father” Kaveney, were able to hold off the Panthers shots and feed the ball back down to the rest of the team on the opposing side. Leading the scoreboard was Hinds with 4 goals, then Holland with 3 goals. Following Hinds and Holland were Brooke “Bobble” Hollister, Sheccid Duhac-Gomez, Cathleen Nguyen, and Jenny Fisher with 1 goal each. The Panthers and Tritons held a modified scrimmage to work on 6 on 5 collectively which was great practice for both teams.

Both the Leopards and Panthers were a great experience for the Lady Tritons to get them back into game mode for the upcoming season. Up next, the Lady Tritons will host a scrimmage against Sunset Masters on February 1st (at Canyonview Aquatic Center) to get them kicking back into gear for the season. The Lady Triton’s first official tournament is at San Diego State on February 22nd and 23rd. Follow them on their road to nationals!