Indiana University Athletics
No. 19 IU Opens Defense of Regular Season Division Title
3/1/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
March 1, 2006
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The No. 19 Indiana women's water polo team opens Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Western Division action with six games, March 3-5. IU will travel to Erie, Pa., to face Gannon on Friday, March 3, at 7:15 p.m. On Saturday, March 4, Indiana will face Grove City at 10 a.m., Slippery Rock at 12:30 p.m. and Washington & Jefferson at 3 p.m. All three contests will be played in Washington, Pa. The Hoosiers will travel back to Erie, Pa., on Sunday, March 5, to battle Mercyhurst at 9:30 a.m. and Penn State-Behrend at 12:30 p.m.
Scouting Gannon
The Hoosiers open the conference weekend with a Friday affair at Gannon. The match will be the season-opener for Gannon at Gannon's Carneval Athletic Pavilion. The Golden Knights are ranked ninth in the CWPA Top 10 Rankings.
Junior Katherine Bucceri returns as the Golden Knights' top returning scorer with 38 goals. She also is the team's leading returner in steals (40) and kickouts earned (19). Gannon returns eight letterwinners from last year's 15-4 squad that finished third at the CWPA Western Division Championships.
The Hoosiers are 7-0 all-time against Gannon. Last season, IU defeated the Golden Knights at Gannon, 11-4.
Scouting Grove City
The Wolverines open the season against the Hoosiers on March 4. Last season, Grove City went 7-15 and finished seventh in the CWPA Western Division.
Grove City is led by Division III All-American goalkeeper Keala Walter. The Wolverines are coached by seventh-year head coach David Fitz.
The Hoosiers are 8-0 all-time against Grove City, including a pair of victories last season. Indiana defeated the Wolverines, 17-4, during the regular season before picking up a 16-1 win at the Western Division Championship.
Scouting Slippery Rock
Slippery Rock is 2-8 on the year after dropping four matches at the Bucknell Invitational. The Rock went 0-4 at the season-opening Michigan Kickoff Tournament. Its lone wins on the year came at the Mercyhurst Invitational when the Rock defeated Ohio, 16-3, and Grand Valley State, 14-5.
Erika Brunner led the Rock, scoring nine of the team's 19 goals at the Bucknell Invitational. Laura Sanford added four goals at the invite, including a pair against Maryland. Goalkeeper Lauren Surbaugh recorded a total of 26 saves and 15 steals in the four games. At the Mercyhurst Invitational, Emily Campbell led SRU with seven goals, while Brunner scored six goals and recorded one assist.
IU is 7-0 all-time against Slippery Rock. The Hoosiers won at Slippery Rock, 19-6, in 2005. Juniors Jaclyn Tameris and Kara Woolley each netted two goals in that contest against the Rock, while sophomore goalkeeper Jackie Pyrz notched six saves.
Scouting Washington & Jefferson
The Presidents open the season with a pair of CWPA Western Division games before facing the Hoosiers. Washington & Jefferson will meet Penn State-Behrend on March 3 before battling Michigan prior to the IU game the following day.
Washington & Jefferson finished sixth at the Collegiate Division III National Championship last season. The Presidents return 10 players from that squad.
Junior Brandi Shoupe returns as the top goal scorer for the Presidents. She notched 25 goals, 33 steals and eight assists in 2005. Senior Kim Cieslik finished the 2005 campaign with 22 goals, including seven in the Division III National Championship. Junior Kim Sawlsville returns as Washington & Jefferson's starting goalkeeper. She earned Division III All-America honors, while making 181 saves with 25 steals last season.
Indiana owns a 6-0 mark against Washington & Jefferson. Last season, IU picked up a pair of victories over the Presidents by a combined score of 32-3. The Hoosiers defeated Washington & Jefferson, 17-2, during the regular season before downing them, 15-1, at the Western Division Championship.
Scouting Mercyhurst
The Lakers will look for their second straight winning season after going 12-8 in 2005. Sophomore Christine Somera earned Division II All-America honors, while leading Mercyhurst with 47 goals and 73 points on the year during her rookie campaign. Senior Tessa DiLoreto finished second on the squad last season with 35 goals, while sophomore Carrie Willison led the Lakers with a single-season school record 38 assists. Sophomore goalkeeper Gina Mieras returns after posting a school-record mark of 230 saves as a freshman.
Mercyhurst won a pair of exhibition matches over Ohio University and Grand Valley at the Mercyhurst Invitational to open the year. The Lakers defeated the Bobcats 11-1, then took out GVSU by an 11-2 final. Somera scored eight goals during the invite, while Willison had six.
The Hoosiers are 4-0 all-time against the Lakers, including a 16-4 win a season ago. Indiana average nearly 17 goals a game against Mercyhurst in four meetings. Indiana used a balanced attack in the win during the 2005 season with seven players notching a pair of goals.
Scouting Penn State-Behrend
Penn State-Behrend opened the season 0-4 at Bucknell Invitational. The Behrend Lions will battle Washington & Jefferson in a conference affair on March 3, before taking on IU on Sunday.
Penn State-Behrend returns eight players from the 2005 squad. Senior Colleen Applebaugh returns for her third season in goal for the Behrend Lions. She finished with 89 saves a season ago. Junior Cara Ludwig notched 95 goals from the two-meter position in only two seasons with Penn State-Behrend. Junior Brittany Yost is one of the top returners for the Behrend Lions. In 2005, Yost finished with 25 goals, 52 steals and 12 assists.
The Hoosiers are 6-0 all-time against Penn State-Behrend. Last season, IU won at Penn State-Behrend, 14-2. Junior Claire Nicholson had a career game for IU against the Behrend Lions with three goals, three assists and seven steals.
Zimmerman Named Western Division POW
Junior Brooke Zimmerman garnered Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Western Division Player of the Week honors following her performance at the Princeton Invitational, Feb. 17-19. Zimmerman led the No. 19 Indiana water polo team to a 3-1 mark at the invite and is the first Hoosier to earn the honor in 2006 after four Hoosiers earned the honor last season.
Zimmerman topped the squad in goals and assists at the competition. The Calgary, Alberta, Canada native finished with eight goals on 18 shots to go along with nine assists, eight steals, and four kickouts earned.
She opened the Princeton Invitational with her first career hat trick on Feb. 17 as she scored three goals on four shots against Bucknell in a 12-9 victory. She also had two assists and a kickout earned in the contest.
On the second day of the invitational, Zimmerman started the day with a solid effort against Brown that included two goals, a career-high three assists and two steals. She followed that performance with her second hat trick in as many days against No. 18 Princeton. She was one of the driving forces behind the Hoosiers' offense and defense against the host Tigers. Along with the hat trick, Zimmerman posted two kickouts earned and a team and career high four steals. Despite her efforts, the Hoosiers fell to the Tigers in sudden victory, 9-8.
On the final day of the Princeton Invitational, Zimmerman did not attempt a shot against Harvard, but that did not stop her from contributing to the Hoosier attack. She finished with three first-half assists and a pair of steals in the victory.
The former Canadian Junior International ranks third on the team in goals (12), assists (12), steals (14) and kickouts earned (11), despite missing the first four games of the season at the Michigan Kickoff Tournament.
Defending Regular Season Champions
Last season, Indiana went a perfect 7-0 in CWPA Western Division action on its way to the program's first regular-season division title. The Hoosiers picked up wins over Washington & Jefferson (17-2), Slippery Rock (19-6), Grove City (17-4), Penn State-Behrend (14-2), Mercyhurst (16-4), Gannon (11-4) and Michigan (7-6).
Six-on-Five Defense
The Hoosiers' defense has stepped up when faced with a man disadvantage this season. IU Opponents have only converted on 28.8 percent (23-of-80) of their six-on-five opportunities this season.
During the opening weekend of the season at the Michigan Kickoff Tournament, the Hoosiers held then-No. 7 Long Beach State (0-of-6), then-No. 8 Michigan (0-of-3) and Colorado State (0-of-4) scoreless on the six-on-five advantage. In the UCSD Triton Invitational, sophomore goalkeeper Jackie Pyrz made seven saves with IU down a man.
