No. 9 Women's Water Polo Travels to Hawaii To Begin 2024 Season

Friday, January 26

Honolulu, Hawaii

11:00 PM (6:00 PM HT)

Princeton University

#4 Hawaii

Kayla Yelensky

Photo by: Sideline Photos, LLC

No. 9 Women's Water Polo Travels to Hawaii To Begin 2024 Season

January 25, 2024 | Women's Water Polo

PRINCETON - The No. 9 Princeton Women's Water Polo Team begins it 2024 campaign at the Rainbow Invitational this weekend.

The 2023 CWPA Champions get underway vs. No. 4 Hawaii on Friday at 11 p.m. ET (6 p.m. HT). Princeton takes on No. 5 Fresno State on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. (10:30 am HT) and Azusa Pacific at 9:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. HT).

The Tigers finished 30-4 overall becoming just the third team in program history record at least 30 victories (2014, 2015) in 2023. Princeton reached the national semifinals for the first time ever and became the first non-West Coast to get to the Final Four since 2016.

One of Princeton's top returners is Kayla Yelensky who was a third-team All-American selection last season. She put up 60 goals and 27 helpers along with 47 drawn ejections for Princeton in her sophomore season. She snagged 11 hat tricks including one vs. No. 2 USC in the NCAA Semifinals. Yelensky was a first-team all-conference pick as well and scored four times in the team's CWPA Championship win over Harvard.

Lindsey Lucas was also a third-team All-American honoree. She was tremendous in her first season with Princeton, posting a 28-4 record with 325 saves and a .578 save percentage. She was named to the NCAA All-Tournament First Team after 15 impressive stops vs. No. 3 Cal and nine more saves vs. No. 2 USC. Her 325 saves were the fifth most in a single season in program history. She had 17 10+ save performances, collecting first-team all-conference and CWPA Rookie of the Year.

Other top returning goal scorers include Shanna Davidson (42), Kaila Carroll (41), Rachael Carver (35), Kate Mallery (34), Meera Burghardt (24) and Ava Houlahan (19). Carver's 81 assists last season broke the single-season program record.

Hawaii is 2-0 this season with wins over No. 13 Michigan and then No. 1 Stanford. Fresno State has four ranked victories already with decisions over Michigan, No. 11 UC Davis, Stanford, and No. 18 San Jose State. Azusa Pacific is 2-1 with victories over Cal State Monterey Bay and Ottawa.