#ThrowbackThursday: 400 Wins

7/2/2015 3:27:00 PM | Women's Water Polo

Head coach Barry King's reached his 400th career win last season, all for the Indiana Hoosiers

Game Stats: IU vs. Gannon 4/19/15
	Goals	Assists	Steals
Stott	1	3	3
Brummett	-	-	1
Creighton	2	-	2
Beadle	1	1	1
Taylor	1	1	-
Peterson	-	-	1
Matthews	3	-	-
Schroeder	1	-	1
Lowe	1	1	-
St. Omer Roy	1	-	-
Gerrity	1	-	-
Myers	1	-	2
Smith	1	1	-
McNaught	1	3	2
Goalkeeper Stats
	Saves	GA	Assists
Campbell	9	1	1
Bonk	5	2	-

During the wait for the opening sprint of 2016, IUHoosiers.com will revisit the top moments of the Hoosiers' outstanding 2015 season. These moments include superlative individual and team performances, compelling matches in the regular season and postseason, storied rivalries, and historic milestones achieved by the 2015 squad.

This week's installment will cover Indiana's dominating win over Gannon University during the closing weekend of the regular season. The match was one of IU's ten consecutive wins down the final stretch of the season, and a showcase of the typical characteristics of a program led by head coach Barry King.

Indiana led wire-to-wire in their 18-3 win over the Gannon Knights on Sunday, April 19. Kelly Matthews topped the score line with three goals to her name, followed by Summer Creighton with two scores. The Hoosiers balanced their attack throughout the match, leading to nine additional goal scorers—Ellie Stott, Jennifer Beadle, Shelby Taylor, Candyce Schroeder, Emily Lowe, Shelley St. Omer Roy, Rebecca Gerrity, Sarah Myers, Bronwyn Smith, and Colleen McNaught.

McNaught, now Indiana's all-time assist leader in all categories, joined Stott as the only two players with three assists in the match. Beadle, Taylor, Lowe, and Smith were also credited with assists.

The story of this game was bigger than the score line, however. It was announced following the match that Indiana's victory over Gannon was Coach King's 400^th career win, as well as his 400^th win as the IU Water Polo head coach. The stunned look on King's face following the announcement revealed that personal accolades weren't at the forefront of his mind in the moment. In fact, Coach King attributed his long tenure with the program to his landmark win total, not the measured success of the program in his 18 seasons at Indiana. Nonetheless, King's players acknowledged his achievement.

"I think that's pretty exciting," senior Rebecca Gerrity said in a post-match interview with Michael Hughes of the Indiana Daily Student. "[Coach King] has been here with the program since it began, and that's pretty great that we could be here in our senior year and help him get to that milestone."

Now sitting at 403 career wins and entering his 19^th season at Indiana, Coach King has fostered a remarkable level of success given the circumstances when he first took the position. King arrived at Indiana in 1998 as the head coach of the Indiana Water Polo club team, as Indiana didn't field a varsity squad at the time. Three years after King took the position, Indiana University added water polo as a varsity sport. In that time, King has led the program to 16 seasons with at least 20 wins, six national championship appearances, and 10 ACWPC All-America selections.

While Coach King remains humble in this career milestone, the 400-win mark is an accomplishment in coaching, irrespective of the sport. It's an especially noteworthy achievement considering that King has been with the program since its inception. Not only that, King took a program that is geographically isolated from the traditional powers in collegiate water polo, and turned Indiana into a perennial national contender.

When the academic year resumes in the fall, and the team takes the pool to begin preparation for the 2016 season, the last thing on the minds of Coach King and his players will be his 400^th win. But it's clear to see that the win against Gannon last season was a special moment for the IU Water Polo program and the only coach it has ever known.

The third installment of #ThrowbackThursday: IU Water Polo's Memorable Moments of 2015 will continue next week with an acknowledgement of last season's Aztec Invitational, where the Hoosiers defeated two ranked opponents in the same day and in their home city.

#ThrowbackThursday Week 1: Indiana 16, Cal State East Bay 0
#ThrowbackThursday Week 2: Coach King's 400^th IU Water Polo Win