Indiana University Athletics
Hoosiers Head To CWPA Eastern Championship
4/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
April 27, 2007
HOOSIERS SET FOR EASTERN DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP
The Indiana women's water polo team will head to Princeton, N.J., for the 2007 Collegiate Water Polo (CWPA) Eastern Championships on April 28-29. Indiana is the No. 5 seed in the event.
The Hoosiers will face off against No. 4 seed Brown in the second game of the tournament on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. EDT. Should the Hoosiers win, IU will play either No. 1 Hartwick or No. 8 Harvard at 7 p.m.
Indiana enters the Eastern Championship after finishing second at the CWPA Western Division Championship on Sunday, April 22. The Hoosiers fell to Michigan, 8-6, in overtime in the title game after wins over Penn State-Behrend in the first round and Gannon in the semifinals.
EASTERN CHAMPIONSHIP SEEDINGS/ SCHEDULE
No. 1 Seed -- Hartwick
No. 2 Seed -- Michigan
No. 3 Seed -- Princeton
No. 4 Seed -- Brown
No. 5 Seed -- Indiana
No. 6 Seed -- Maryland
No. 7 Seed -- Bucknell
No. 8 Seed -- Harvard
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Game 1 - 9:00 - No. 1 Hartwick vs. No. 8 Harvard
Game 2 - 10:30 - No. 4 Brown vs. No. 5 Indiana
Game 3 - 12:00 - No. 2 Michigan vs. No. 7 Bucknell
Game 4 - 1:30 - No. 3 Princeton vs. No. 6 Maryland
Game 5 - 4:00 - Loser of Game 2 vs. Loser of Game 1
Game 6 - 5:30 - Loser of 4 vs. Loser of Game 3
Game 7 - 7:00 - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2
Game 8 - 8:00 - Winner of Game 2 vs. Winner of Game 4
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Seventh-Place Game - 9:00 - Loser of Game 6 vs. Loser of Game 5
Fifth-Place Game - 10:30 - Winner of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 6
Third-Place Game - 12:00 - Loser of Game 8 vs. Loser of Game 7
Championship Game - 1:30 - Winner of Game 7 vs. Winner of Game 8
LIVE VIDEO STREAM AVAILABLE
Princeton University will stream live video (subscription required) of all the Eastern Championship games this weekend at GoPrincetonTigers.com. Pricing for the service is $7.95 for the month.
SCOUTING BROWN
The Bears (21-9) hold the No. 4 seed this weekend. The Bears are coming off a second-place finish at the Northern Division Championships this past weekend where they dropped an 18-6 decision to Hartwick in the final game. The Bears offense is led by the trio of Elizabeth Balassone (43), Lauren Presant (39) and Sarah Glick (37). Caitlin Fahey leads the team in steals with 45 and is followed ny Presant with 33. Stephanie Laing has seen all of Brown's action in the cage this season, and has accumulated 29 saves. Brown averages 9.46 goals per game. Overall, the Hoosiers have a 9-1 record against Brown, with the only loss being an 8-4 outing at the Wolverine Invitational earlier this season.
WESTERN DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP RECAP
The Indiana water polo team fell to No. 19 Michigan, 8-6, in overtime of the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Western Division Championship on Saturday, April 22. It was the third consecutive year in which the two teams had squared off for the title, with Michigan taking all three games.
The Hoosiers got on the board first, as senior Emily Schmitt found the back of the cage just 1:27 into the game to give IU the early advantage. Michigan's Leah Robertson scored just 33 seconds later to tie up the game. Senior Melissa Soria and junior Brooke Zimmerman each scored once in the first quarter to give IU a 3-1 advantage, but the Wolverines came back to score twice in the closing two minutes to bring the score to 3-3 to close out the frame.
The two teams each scored once in the second frame and neither team could find the goal in the third quarter to have the score tied at 4-4 entering the final quarter. Indiana drew first blood in the fourth, as senior Kristin Zernicke scored in the first minute of play to put the Hoosiers back on top. With just over four minutes left to play, freshman Nicole Sands scored to put IU up by two, but Michigan found the back of the cage twice more before the end of the game to send the title match into overtime.
Neither team was able to score in the first overtime period, but Michigan's Julie Hyrne scored a goal in the first minute of the second overtime to put the Wolverine's on top. Hyrne scored again with 1:52 remaining in the period to close out the win for Michigan.
Zimmerman led the Hoosiers with three goals, while Zernicke, Sands and Soria each added one.
HISTORY IN THE EASTERN CHAMPIONSHIP
Since joining the Collegiate Water Polo Association in 2001, the Hoosiers are 11-5 at the Eastern Championship. The Cream and Crimson have placed in the top three in three of the last four seasons.
In 2002, the Hoosiers lost an epic five-overtime match to Michigan, before knocking Princeton in the third-place match. Indiana won its first Eastern title in 2003, defeating Princeton, 5-1, in the semifinals and Brown, 7-5, in the finals. In 2004, the Hoosiers fell to Hartwick in the semifinals, 6-5, before ending the season on a high note with a 9-4 victory over Brown. Last season, the Hoosiers fell in overtine to Bucknell to open the tournament, 6-5, but came back to win, 7-6, over Harvard and defeated host Brown, 10-8, in overtime in the fifth-place game.
Eastern History
2001 1-2 Sixth
2002 3-1 Third
2003 3-0 First
2004 2-1 Third
2005 2-1 Fifth
Total 11-5
BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK WESTERN DIVISION TITLES
By virtue of its 9-7 overtime victory in Bloomington on April 7, IU garnered its third straight CWPA regular season Western Division title. The win completed a perfect 7-0 run for IU through the CWPA Western Division.
RACKING UP THE HONORS
After her three goal performance in the overtime win over then-No. 17 Michigan, Indiana junior Brittany Estrada was named the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Western Division Player of Week. She also earned IU Athlete of the Week honors for her performance in the match. Estrada tied her career high with the hat trick, including the winning tally with 1:42 remaining in the first overtime session
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Indiana junior Brooke Zimmerman was named the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Western Division Player of the Week, the conference office announced on March 29. It is the second such honor of her career.
The Calgary, Alberta, native led the Hoosiers to a 6-0 week from March 23-25, as IU knocked off six Western Division opponents to move to 6-0 in the division on the year. In those six games, Zimmerman tallied 13 goals, which raised her single-season scoring total to 60, 13 shy of the all-time Hoosier record of 73, set by Kristin Stanford in 2003. Zimmerman opened the weekend with one goal against Gannon in a 9-7 victory and then rattled off hat tricks in wins over Mercyhurst (14-2), Penn State-Behrend (17-1) and Slippery Rock (16-9) before tallying a goal at Grove City (14-4) and a pair of scores at Washington & Jefferson (19-7). She now has 116 goals for her career, good for seventh on the all-time list at IU.
A CAREER TRIP
Freshman Rachel Edwards had a career roadtrip when the Hoosiers competed in Pennsylvania, tallying 10 goals, dishing out four assists and grabbing 10 steals. She set a career high with three goals at Grove City on March 24 and then matched that total at Slippery Rock the following day. Edwards also dished out a career-best two assists twice on the trip and grabbed four steals twice as well, including in the final game of the trip, at Washington & Jefferson on March 25.
RECORD SETTING
With nine assists on the CWPA roadtrip, senior Kristin Zernicke vaulted to the top of the Indiana record book for helpers in a career. The Calgary, Alberta, native has dished out 129 assists for her career, surpassing the previous record of 125, which was set by former Hoosier Deb Simone. Along that same vein, senior Claire Nicholson became the sixth Hoosier to have five assists in a game when she helped on five goals at Washington & Jefferson to wrap up the trip on March 25.
IN THE RANKINGS
The water polo team opened the 2007 season where it finished the year before, ranked No. 20 in the National Collegiate Women's Top 20 Poll, which was released on Jan. 24. The Hoosiers were 11th in the preseason poll in 2006 and went on to spend the rest of the year in the rankings. The Hoosiers shared their preseason ranking with Brown University. The Hoosiers are also ranked No. 4 in the inaugural CWPA Poll.
After winning its second straight regular-season CWPA Western Division title in 2006, the Indiana water polo team is looking to repeat as divisional champion, return to the CWPA Eastern Championship and compete for a national title in 2007. The Hoosiers, who went 24-11 a year ago, return four of their top five players, including returning 201 of their 311 goals from 2006.
SEASON OPENERS
The season-opening 2007 Michigan Kick-Off marked the sixth straight season in which the Hoosiers have opened play in Ann Arbor, going 1-3 at the event. Last season, Indiana went 1-3 at the Michigan Kick-Off, and won two of three contests at the Michigan Invitational to start the 2005 campaign. The Hoosiers have won just three season-openers at Michigan, the 16-3 win over UC Santa Cruz, a 6-5 overtime triumph over Arizona State on Jan. 24, 2004, and a 10-8 victory against Hartwick on Jan. 25, 2003.
Players Mentioned
