Players Mentioned
Women's Water Polo Heads to West Coast for San Diego Invite
March 10, 2016 | Women's Water Polo
PRINCETON, N.J. – The Princeton women's water polo team makes its first of two trips this season to the West Coast as it will participate in the San Diego invitational this weekend (Mar. 12-13).
The Tigers will take on the host, No. 20 San Diego State, on Saturday (7 p.m.), followed by No. 11 UC-San Diego (1:15 p.m.) and Chapman (6:15 p.m.) on Sunday. Princeton is 3-12 all-time against San Diego State, but took last season's matchup, 6-4. The Tigers have taken 12 of their 15 contests in program history against UC-San Diego including a close 10-9 victory over the Tritons during last year's campaign.
Princeton is currently on a five-game winning streak after recently sweeping its three games at the Harvard Invitational (Mar. 5-6). Head coach Luis Nicolao's team defeated No. 22 Marist, 13-6 and the host, No. 16 Harvard, 12-8 last Saturday and then registered an impressive 13-3 victory over Iona on Sunday.
After an impressive weekend at the Harvard Invitational, sophomore Chelsea Johnson was selected as the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA)'s National Player of the Week. Johnson had her second consecutive four-goal outing to lead Princeton in scoring as the team's conquest over No. 22 Marist. The sophomore continued her stellar play with two goals and an assist as the Tigers beat the Harvard then had a goal in the team's take down of Iona.
Freshman Lindsey Kelleher also picked up a national accolade as she was picked as the CWPA Rookie of the Week. The freshman scored once and had a team-high three assists in the match vs. Marist. A few hours later, Kelleher helped defeat Harvard with a career-high four goals. The freshmen tallied a team-best three goals in the match vs. Iona along with two assists.
Sophomore Haley Wan leads the Tigers in scoring with 21 goals on 29 shot attempts (.724), steals (15) and sprint victories (11) while also being tied for the team high in assists (15). Princeton has seven players with at least 10 goals and two more with nine tallies each. Kelleher has made an impact on both the offensive (17 goals, 15 assists) and defensive end (12 steals, 9 ejection drawns). Sophomore goalie Helena van Brande has made 86 saves this season including a season-high 14 against Iona on Sunday.