Women's Water Polo Ends Season Riding Wave

Author: Srah Weston & Margot Herwood

The Middlebury women's water polo team made a splash this weekend at the New England Championships. Ranked third in its division coming in, Middlebury finished eighth overall in the round robin tournament at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which included teams from Dartmouth, Yale, MIT, Wesleyan, Wellesley, Williams, Bates, Holy Cross, Boston University (BU) and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. After a shaky start in an up and down loss to Bates (final score 14-10), the women came back strong, massacring Williams 15-3 and defeating Holy Cross 20-10.

Keys to the wins were teamwork and aggressive defense, which allowed the team to make steals and pass the ball up the pool to sprinters Jen Watters '03 and Sarah Schaeffer '03 for quick breakaways. The team also saw gutsy play in the hole by Margot Herwood '03 and Watters, whose quick switching shook up the confused defenders.

A team captain commented "the loss to Bates was tough, but it was great to see the team come back and finish up strong. During the Williams game, they thought they could shut us down by checking Kate (Saltstein '02.5) tight, but the rest of the team really stepped up and took over the offense."

The final game of the tournament was against Boston University, whose rough and physical style of play and overflowing bench proved to be too much for the smaller Panther team. Despite impressive performances by Watters and Saltstein and an overall great effort by the entire team in a dramatic fourth quarter run, BU managed to hold onto the game by two goals, with a final score of 15-13.

Goalie Sarah Weston '03 had her best game of the season, putting up an impressive showing against a barrage of two meter shots. For her final game with the Middlebury woman's water polo team, outgoing February senior Saltstein had nothing but enthusiasm, commenting "we sure gave them a run for their money, everyone gave it their all and we all had a great time, it was a good game to go out on." Saltstein's overall aggressiveness and strong shooting at one point drove the BU goalie to pray visibly as Saltstein lined up for yet another penalty shot drawn by the quick Panther offense.

Courtney Taylor '04 noted "I've never seen that many kickouts and four meters in a game, even their goalie got kicked out!" This tournament marked the end of Middlebury women's water polo's third year, and their most successful season yet. They hope to continue to improve next year, despite the loss of captain Saltstein, and look forward to a rematch with Bates and BU. As Watters put it "we can totally beat those teams next time!"