UC San Diego Women’s Club Water Polo had their first qualifying tournament of the season this past weekend February 25-26th in their home pool at Canyonview. With a full bench and roster, they were ready to get into action and start their season.
Saturday was full of sunny skies as the Tritons started off the afternoon defeating SDSU ‘B’ (9-6). Goals came from offensive threats Hannah “Shrek” Caskey, Natalie “Pop a Squat” Popescu, Cathleen “Pup” Nguyen, Macey “Mom” Rafter, Allison “Kreamer” Kramer and Katie “Brad” Archer. Later in the day the Tritons faced Arizona State and defeated the Sun Devils (12-7) with goals from Caskey, Popescu, Nguyen, Rafter and notably Sandhya “Spicy” Sriram who had her first goal of the season. Their pitchfork was no match for King Triton’s trident. The Tritons rested up that night to prepare for the rainy day of competition on Sunday.
Sunday morning the Tritons warmed up for the day facing University of Arizona and defeated the Wildcats (16-1). Goals came from across the entire roster notably from Sriram, Amy “Shrumpy” Ly, Jenna “Scooter” MacAulay, and McKenzie “McRib” Nelson. To finish the tournament, the Tritons had their toughest competition of the season thus far playing their last game against San Diego State ‘A’ and were defeated in a close game (6-8). Goals came from Nguyen (3), Caskey (1), Popescu (1) and Kramer (1) who worked hard to bury the ball past the Aztecs.
The Tritons are excited to train for their upcoming tournament in March, improving and working on their skills to work towards taking the Southwest Division Title in April. This past weekend was a wonderful performance across the roster and truly proved the teamwork and compatibility that the Tritons have as a team.
