No. 9 Women's Water Polo Heads West For NCAA Tournament

Friday, May 12

Stockton, Calif.

9:00 PM (6:00 PM PT)

Princeton University

No. 3 California

Laura Larkin

No. 9 Women's Water Polo Heads West For NCAA Tournament

May 10, 2023 | Women's Water Polo

Game Notes

PRINCETON – The No. 9 Women's Water Polo Team heads to California for the NCAA Tournament this weekend in Stockton, Calif.

The Tigers will take on No. 3 seeded California in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Friday at 9 p.m. (6 p.m. PT). The winner of that matchup will take on the winner of No. 2 seeded USC and Fresno State on Saturday at 10 p.m.

The other side of the bracket features No. 1 Stanford vs. the winner of LIU and Biola. No. 4 seeded UCLA and UC Irvine in the second quarterfinal matchup. With that winner taking on No. 1 Stanford/LIU/Biola.

The National Championship game is on Sunday at 10 p.m. and can be seen on ESPNU.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?
•Head coach Derek Ellingson's group began the 2023 season with three ranked wins including a 10-8 decision over No. 12 UC Santa Barbara at the Princeton Winter Tournament.

•Princeton would then go on a 15-game winning streak, collecting seven ranked decisions during that stretch including a win over No. 7 Long Beach State on the road.

•The Tigers' 15-game winning streak was tied for the fifth longest in program history.

•The Tigers reached No. 6 in the CWPA Varsity Poll, tied for the best mark in Princeton history.

•Princeton rebounded after a loss to No. 3 UCLA with a 15-12 win over No. 17 Wagner, avenging an earlier season loss. Ellingson's group finished the CWPA portion of the schedule at 9-1, losing to just No. 12 Michigan on the road.

•In the CWPA Championships, the Tigers dropped St. Francis, 8-3, before defeating No. 18 Harvard, 12-8, in the championship game.

•It's the fifth CWPA crown for the Tigers in program history. It's also the second time that the men and women have won conference championships in the same academic year (2011-12).

•Jovana Sekulic was named the CWPA Tournament Most Valuable Player after scoring a hat trick in the championship contest. She joined Kayla Yelensky on the All-Tournament First-Team. Lindsey Lucas was honored as the tournament's best rookie while collecting second team honors with Laura Larkin. Derek Ellingson was named Doc Hunkler Coach of the Tournament.

LEADING WOMEN
•Jovana Sekulic was named the CWPA Most Valuable Player and first-team all-conference. She paced the team in goals (74) and drawn ejections (87) while also adding 24 steals. The sophomore had a .655 shooting percentage, contributing 14 hat tricks and 23 multi-goal performances. Sekulic had a stretch of 10 games where she had nine hat tricks and two tallies in the other contest. The sophomore is the second Princeton player to win CWPA Player of the Year, joining Ashleigh Johnson in 2015 and earned her second first-team all-conference.

•Lindsey Lucas was picked as the CWPA Rookie of the Year and first-team all-conference after going 27-3 with a .589 save percentage and 301 saves. Her 301 stops are the fifth most all-time. She produced 16 games with at least 10 saves with her signature moment being a 19-stop game over No. 7 Long Beach State.

•Kayla Yelensky was also first-team all-conference, picking up 55 goals and 27 assists along with 39 drawn ejections. Yelensky had 10 hat tricks with eight of them coming against nationally ranked opponents. The sophomore added multi-goal games in 24 contests this season and seven multi-assist outings. This is Yelensky's second straight all-conference award.

•Laura Larkin showed off an all-around game with 20 goals, 23 assists and a team-best 33 steals for Princeton, nabbing second-team all-conference. She scored in 16 games and had 10 performances with at least two steals. Her season-best contest came vs. Bucknell with five swipes while she added a hat trick vs. No. 19 Brown. This is her second all-conference honor.

BALANCED ATTACK
•The Tigers have nine players with at least 20 goals in Sekulic, Yelensky, Shanna Davidson, Kaila Carroll, Kate Mallery, Rachael Carver, Annie Robinson, Meera Burghardt and Larkin. Ava Houlahan is two shy of the mark with 18.

•Princeton's 402 goals this season are the most in program history, surpassing the mark of 394 set in 2015 and 2022.

•Carver leads the team in points with 32 goals and 77 assists which is the most in a single season in program history.

GOLD TIGER
•Ashleigh Johnson '17 graduated from Princeton as one of the greatest water polo players ever.

•During her senior season, Johnson went 22-4, had 300 saves and a .693 save percentage for the Tigers. She led the team with 54 steals and added 16 assists.

•The goalie earned honors such as Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Championships All-Tournament First Team, CWPA All-Conference First Team, four-time CWPA Defensive Player of the Week. She finished her career as the Princeton's all-time leader in saves (1,362), earned 100 career victories and was a 19-time CWPA Defensive Player of the Week accolades.

•Johnson was the first player in Princeton women's water polo history to be named first team All-America. The goalie is also the third Princeton player ever to be picked as All-American in each of her four seasons.

MADE OF GOLD
•Johnson is a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, helping the United States to the gold at 2016 Rio and 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

•In 2021, she led the tournament in saves (80) and save percentage (64.5), collecting the Olympiad's top goalkeeper for the second straight time.

•In the team's six games in 2016, she allowed just 28 goals, made 51 saves. She was also the first ever African American to make the U.S. national team.

•Johnson is only the fifth Princeton athlete/alumni to be a multi-time gold medalist, joining a group featuring Karl T. Frederick '03 (shooting), Herman Whilton '26 (sailing), Nelson Diebel '87 (swimming) and Caroline Lind '06 (rowing).

NCAA APPEARANCES
•This is the fourth NCAA Tournament in program history with the previous three coming in 2012, 2013 and 2015. The 2000 CWPA Champions participated in the non-NCAA Collegiate National Championship, placing eighth.

•Princeton has finished as high as fifth in the NCAA Tournament, collecting two consolation victories in 2013 and two more consolation decisions in 2015.