Princeton University Athletics
Princeton Women's Water Polo Opens 2006 Season This Weekend at Home
February 16, 2006 | Women's Water Polo
Feb. 16, 2006
PRINCETON - The 18th-ranked Princeton women's water polo team begins the 2006 season this Friday night when it takes to DeNunzio Pool to face Villanova at 6 p.m. The game also opens the 10-game and 20-team Princeton Invitational, which runs through Sunday afternoon. Princeton will also face Marist, No. 17 Indiana, and Brown during its opening weekend.
The Tigers open the season with high expectations after last season's Southern championship and a fourth-place finish at Easterns. In addition, Princeton returns almost its whole roster from last season, including its eight of its nine top goal scorers and its starting goalkeeper.
Junior Elyse Colgan led the team in scoring as both a freshman and a sophomore. She has scored 152 goals in two seasons and has two Southern MVP awards, two first-team all-southern and two first-team all-eastern awards to her credit. In November, she was invited to play in the 2005 Speedo Top 40 Tournament, a USA Water Polo event, used for officials to assess the top players in the country.
Joining Colgan are nine Tiger players that recorded at least 10 goals last season. Ranking second among returning players are junior Jazmin Brown and freshman Carolina Ardila, both of whom scored 31 goals last season. Junior Samanatha Shaughnessy was next with 24 goals scored.
Other scorers in double digits last season include senior Anne-Lise Maag, senior Courtney Mee, junior Karina Reyner, junior Jessica Ajoux, senior Megan Donahue, and junior Maegen Zitren. Sophomore goalkeeper Natalie Kim, who emerged as the starter last season, leads the Tiger defense. She went 17-7 as a freshman, making 182 saves and was named first-team all-southern. Mee and Shaughnessy also play important roles in defending the Princeton end of the pool.
After facing Villanova at 6 p.m., on Friday night, Princeton returns to play on Saturday afternoon when the Tigers meet Marist at 1 p.m. The Tigers then face the only other ranked team in the Princeton Invitational, Indiana, ranked 17th, on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. Princeton completes the tournament with a game on Sunday against Brown at 12:15 p.m.
Princeton hosts the Ivy League Invitational next weekend.