Since its inaugural season in 1996, the women’s water polo team has been a household name in the NCAA, winning four national titles — in 1999, 2004, 2010 and 2013 — with repeated NCAA championship game appearances. The program has only known one coach who built a nationally recognized competitor in just 21 short years: Jovan Vavic.
The Women of Troy have had some impressive season records. Their last undefeated season was in 2004 when the Trojans were 29-0 and went on to win the national championship. This season could bring a similar outcome with the Trojans already well into their season, maintaining a perfect record of 17-0 and a 3-0 mark in MPSF action.
“[The 2016 team] is one of the most talented teams I’ve coached,” Vavic said. “They are all committed to training and have a lot of determination and fire in them.”
The depth in USC’s roster has been key to their success. Major stat leaders include junior attacker Stephania Haralabidis who leads the conference in assists and is second in conference in goals scored, averaging 2.7 goals per game. Four Trojans are also featured on the offensive stat rankings with junior attacker Ioanna Haralibidis, junior utility Avery Peterson, junior center Brigitta Games and sophomore utility Brianna Daboub.
On the defensive side, the team ranks first in the MPSF, allowing just 4.73 goals against per game. Freshman goalie Amanda Longan and sophomore goalie Victoria Chamorro are both in the top 10 among MPSF goaltenders as Longan owns the No. 6 spot in seven games of work with 59 saves and Chamorro, coming in at the No. 9 spot, had 47 saves in 6.5 games of work.
Chamorro cites film as a major contributor to the goaltenders’ success.
“We’ve been watching a lot of video to not only correct our own mistakes for future games, but also to study the competition and find their weaknesses to beat them,” Chamorro said.
Vavic notes that the team is calm and collected in their defensive end.
“We have the No. 1 defense in the conference,” Vavic said. “A major threat to our team success would be if the players are not disciplined on defense and giving up opportunities to score for the other team.”
The team also has a variety of international players who have represented their respective countries in the FINA Junior World Championship. Junior attackers Stephania and Ioanna Haralabidis represented Greece in the championship while sophomore utility Hayley McKelvey played for the Canadian Junior National Team in the same tournament. Other Trojans in the tournament were freshmen Brooke Presten and Amanda Longan, who represented Team USA and helped bring home the gold.
With 11 of their 16 active players on the roster having played at the national and international level, the Trojans possess significant experience and athleticism.
But their recognizable talent is not the only thing that sets the Trojans apart from the competition.
“We have a great team chemistry,” Chamorro said. “We constantly give feedback to each other on what we are doing well and need to work on. Our coach also helps unify us. He teaches us so much every day at practice.”
With just four more regular season games before the playoffs, the Trojans are looking to maintain their No. 1 seed and finish with a championship.
“We don’t plan week by week,” Vavic said. “Instead, we focus on perfecting everything throughout the season. It’s been our goal since the beginning and will continue to be as the season goes on.”
Still, the undefeated record does not mean the Women of Troy plan on coasting through their remaining games.
“We definitely cannot get comfortable with our record in mind,” Chamorro said. “We need to constantly pick up the intensity and keep improving. Preparation is the key to maintaining our success in the future since we have a big target on us.”
The post Women’s water polo rides depth, chemistry to the top appeared first on Daily Trojan.