Lady Crabs Battle Their Way to 2-2 Weekend
As their club days come to a close and the varsity era looms on the horizon, the Lady Crabs took to water for their first home tournament of the spring season on March 2 and 3, capturing two of the four matches.
“I thought the girls did very well at this tournament,” said Josh Dunn, the new head coach of the Monmouth College water polo teams.
“It was tough leading up to the tournament because we only had a week of practices. With only a week we weren’t able to get too in depth at practice, so I just wanted to get everyone on the same page.”
Even with only a short week of practices, the women’s water polo team came out strong in the home opener with a 20-6 win over Augustana College. They fell to Washington University 7-19 and Saint Louis University 7-13 next, but quickly regained momentum against Knox College, pulling out an 18-11 win for the final match of the tournament, finishing with a 2-2 record.
“We have already tied our previous season’s win record in just one tournament and we found a lot of things we can strengthen for the next one in April,” said senior captain Julie Samuelson. “Our returning players came back in great condition and our new players show a lot of talent and promise.”
Returning senior and captain Erica McAloon led the team in scoring with 16 goals, as freshman Taylor Sutschek was close behind at nine. On the defensive side, junior captain Claire McGuire finished the weekend with 18 steals, while together freshman Morgan Bruess and senior Julie Samuelson racked up over 40 saves in goal.
“All of our individual field players this weekend were able to score at least one goal,” Dunn said. “Which is a huge accomplishment as a team and individually because many teams do not have that strong of depth or team players to do that successfully.”
With a 2-2 start to the spring season and a final club season to play, the women’s water polo team plans to utilize their practice time in preparation for the upcoming home tournament on April 13 and 14.
“As we have more practice time, we will all keep improving,” said senior Amanda Zaidel. “We have a great dynamic and I think that our season will go very well.”