Rainbow Wahine
want to stay afloat
in Michigan

Roy’s young team has a shot at
water polo glory in the NCAA
tournament starting tomorrow

The Hawaii water polo team has come a long way to reach this weekend's national championship tournament -- even if you don't count its 15-hour journey from Honolulu to Michigan earlier this week.

After losing five of their first seven matches this season, the Rainbow Wahine won 16 of their next 17 to climb the national rankings and earn a spot in the NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship in Ann Arbor.

"It's a huge step," said third-year UH coach Michel Roy. "When I came in two years ago that was one of my objectives, to win this thing in the next few years.

"We're very young, we're very inexperienced, but that's the right step."

The Wahine make their first appearance in the tournament with a quarterfinal match against Loyola Marymount tomorrow at the University of Michigan's Canham Natatorium.

The match between fourth-seeded UH (20-9) and the fifth-seed Lions (27-6) is set for 1:30 p.m. Hawaii time.

The winner plays top-ranked UCLA (30-0) or eighth-seeded Wagner (23-7) in a semifinal at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. The loser drops into the consolation bracket. The final will be played on Sunday.

Tomorrow's other opening-round matches feature No. 3 Stanford (20-6) against No. 6 Michigan (28-12) and No. 2 USC (23-4) against No. 7 Redlands (19-11).

The field for the tournament was expanded from four teams to eight this year, with UH drawing one of three at-large berths, along with fellow Mountain Pacific Sports Federation members USC and Stanford.

UCLA earned the MPSF's automatic berth by winning the conference tournament this month and enters the national championship as the favorite.

"UCLA has an amazing team," Roy said. "They've got 17 U.S. national team athletes, they've got five Olympians, six world champions. USC is the defending national champion and Stanford beat USC at the MPSF (tournament).

"But you never know. We have to take it one step at a time."

UH posted a winning record in the MPSF for only the second time in the program's eight-year history and enters the tournament battle-tested, having faced five of the eight teams in this weekend's field. UH went 3-7 against those teams and defeated Loyola Marymount 9-6 on Feb. 26.

Roy said the Lions weren't at full strength in the first meeting, and the Wahine will have to sneak the ball past an Olympian to advance to the semifinals.

LMU sophomore goalie Rachel Riddle was a member of the Canadian Olympic team and played in three matches in Athens last summer, earning a win against the U.S.

"We have to play with confidence and we have to start on fire," Roy said. "We have to start solid, confident, shoot the ball, not be scared of who they are and get the momentum of the game on our side. If they start on fire and we're catching up the whole game, then it's going to be very difficult."

Freshman Monika Kruszona leads the Wahine with 58 goals and Iefke Van Belkum scored 49 goals and assisted on 44 more entering the tournament. Beth Novick (53 goals, nine assists) is one of seven UH seniors closing their careers at the national championship.

Sophomore Meike De Nooy gave up six goals per game to finish third among MPSF goalies.

"Hopefully next year and the year after we'll be even better and more competitive," Roy said.

Island ties: Punahou graduates Katie Flanagan and Kamaile Crowell combined to score 10 goals for UCLA this season. Flanagan's sister, Maureen, is a volunteer assistant coach with the Bruins. Mid-Pacific graduate Bianca Simonetti is on the USC roster.