UCSD Women’s Club Water Polo headed on a road trip to Tempe, Arizona on Friday April 21st to finish their 2017 season at the Southwest Division Championships. Traveling through the desert and the cacti, the Tritons were ready to “send it” (a common phrase used throughout the weekend to kick some butt).

Despite the 100 degree weather and warm pool water, the Tritons defeated the University of Arizona Wildcats in their first game on Saturday 18-4. Goals came from across the whole roster lead by Natalie “Pop A Squat” Popescu followed by captain Hannah “Shrek” Caskey, captain Macey “Mom” Rafter, Kinsey “Kids Meal” Van Deynze, Cathleen “Pup” Nguyen, Taylor “Swoop” Arnett (who finally got her nickname), Cami “Grami” Cunningham, Clara “Clary Potter” Woods, and Sandhya “Spicy” Sriram. Notably Nguyen also had the highest amount of assists followed by Popescu.

Later in the day the Tritons had their most anticipated game of the season thus far against the UC Irvine Anteaters. The Anteaters came out strong against the Tritons leading at half-time. After rearranging offense the Tritons “sent it” and came back strong but not enough to defeat the anteaters who won with a score of 11-7. Nguyen was the leading scorer followed by Rafter, Van Deynze and Popescu.

Sunday morning the Tritons played the Arizona State Sun Devils to battle for 3rd place in the Southwest Division. The Tritons brought the heat winning 11-4 at the Sun Devils home territory. Leading scorer was Caskey followed by Van Deynze, Rafter, Popescu, Nguyen, and McKenzie “McRib” Nelson. Popescu also had an additional 5 assists with Caskey leading with 5 steals.

The Tritons finished off their trip by exploring the nature in Tempe, Arizona (AKA lots of rocks and cacti) and celebrating their hard work over the course of the season. Sadly, the Tritons are saying goodbye to 4 of their players who will be graduating in June: Rafter, Arnett, Popescu, and Mizeille “Mizzy Elliot” Avina. Look out next year, Tritons are going to do everything and everything to make it to the 2017-2018 CWPA Nationals!
#Zona2017 #FodSungod #SendIt