Women’s Water Polo Notebook: UCI aims to poke Bears
Coaching a team making its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in five seasons, UC Irvine’s Dan Klatt said it should not shock anyone that the Anteaters are among eight teams who begin vying for an NCAA crown on Friday at Stanford University.
But shocking the women’s water polo world is exactly what No. 5-seeded UCI (19-8) is looking to accomplish when it meets No. 4-seeded Cal (19-7) in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament on Friday at 5:15 p.m.
Against the sport’s Big Four of No. 1-seeded UCLA (24-2), No. 2-seeded Stanford (22-2), No. 3-seeded USC (22-5) and Cal, UCI has not won in the last nine years. All-time, UCI is 1-73 against the Big Four, with its lone victory coming against Cal (a 7-6 upset on March 20, 2005).
“I think all the time about what kind of thoughts that would put out there for people,” Klatt said of a potential breakthrough against the Big Four this weekend. “I think people look at us as a program that has had great success [six Big West Conference regular-season titles, including this season] and we compete at a high level and make the NCAAs. But I want [recruits] to believe they can come here and eventually win a national title.
“[Beating the Big Four] has been our continuous goal,” said Klatt, in his 11th season. “We’ve been in a box in the No. 5-No. 6-spot for a few years now and there are gaps there for various reasons. But this year, with this team, it would be awesome to do it, because we have a lot of players coming back. So if we were able to get in the top four, it would really bode well for future years.
“All those [Big Four] schools have established programs with a lot of history, both on the men’s and women’s side. Our goal is to become one of them and for it to not be the Big Four anymore.”
Danielle Warde, a four-time first-team All-Big West Conference utility player and one of only two UCI seniors this season, said breaking through against the Big Four is among the player’s biggest goals.
“We definitely talk about it,” said Warde, who has played in the NCAA tournament each of her four seasons (she redshirted in 2013 when UCI failed to make it). “My team has the toughest schedule in the nation. We play all these top teams throughout the year in tournaments and nonconference games, because we want to break through. The [Big Four] has a lot of pressure on them and we don’t have as much pressure, so we are just going to go for it. We’re in the national championship for a reason. We’re here to win and that’s what we’re looking to do.”
Warde, whose father Tom earned NCAA Player of the Year honors for leading the 1989 UCI men’s team to a national championship, needs four goals to become the fourth women’s player in school history to reach that plateau.
UCI finished sixth in the NCAA Tournament last season, after which it lost five senior starters. UCI was fourth in 2012 and fifth in 2011 in the NCAA Tournament format that includes consolation play for third, fifth and seventh place.
The Anteaters defeated Loyola Marymount, 8-6, in 2012 for the program’s only NCAA quarterfinal win.
Still, Klatt, whose squad lost in the Big West Tournament title game at Hawaii, then became the first school to receive an NCAA at-large berth not in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, says just beating Cal is not the be-all, end-all at Stanford.
“I don’t think we should ever come to this tournament and not have a goal of trying to win a national championship.” Klatt said. “There’s no question it’s going to be challenging. There are eight good teams that all deserve to be here. Being a 4-5 [seeded] game, it should be a good matchup. Cal has beaten us a couple times earlier this year.
“If we’re here at the [NCAA Tournament] why not us?
Cal topped UCI, 9-4 on Feb. 1 and 10-5 on Feb. 21.
Senior goalie Jillian Yocum is another four-year starter and a three-time first-team All-Big West performer.
Mary Brooks was the Big West Freshman of the Year, while junior McKenna Mitchell, a first-team all-conference center, leads the team with 42 goals, three more than Warde and 15 more than Brooks.