March 6, 2020

Hello, Bears! Welcome back!
 
It's time to get caught up with what Cal Women's Water Polo has been up to for the past two weeks. First, we travelled to Irvine to play in the Barbara Kalbus invitational. This tournament has always been very memorable for me. When my dad coached the women's water polo team at UCSD, he used to let me travel with his team to this tournament when I was around 8 years old. That memory has always held a special place in my heart and always inspired me to play water polo at a higher level. It's cool to come full circle and now be a participant and contributor on a collegiate team almost 13 years later.
 
This tournament was a tough one for us. After losing to University of Michigan in overtime in our first game, were stuck in the lower bracket of the tournament - obviously not where we wanted to be and disappointing. But I believe our team showed a lot of resilience by coming out strong in the next three games and dominating for the rest of the tournament by beating UOP, LMU, and UCSD (who we had lost to in overtime early in the season). After this tournament, a lot of us were eager to get back to practice and preparing for our conference games.

I realized after my last blog post that I forgot to mention two very important members of our team! Alleanna and Juju Clark are sisters and our team managers, and the dynamic duo that keep us moving behind the scenes at almost all of our games and tournaments. If you come to any of our games, you will likely see them sitting behind the camera, carefully filming and tagging each of our games so that we have film to watch later. When we were in Irvine, the Clarks generously hosted us for a team dinner at their beautiful San Clemente home. This was highlighted by authentic Persian food, karaoke, and a surprise cake for Alleanna's 21^st birthday! Thank you to the Clarks!
 

Last weekend we had the whole weekend off from practice, which is a rarity, especially during season. We took it upon ourselves to have a fun team activity Saturday night hosted at the apartment occupied by Cass, Catie, and myself. Everyone had a partner who they had to dress up with for a fun game night. These costumes were highlighted by Lily Turner dressed up as the Queen of England, Eva Browning and Sydney Hammill as Teletubbies, Carson Broad and Grace Raisin as Shrek and Fiona, and Kristina Garcia, Claire Sonne, and Daily Hartmeier as the Kardashian sisters.
 

This weekend, we play our first conference game at home against UCLA and then another game against UC Irivine. Home games are always exciting, full of energy, and some of my favorite and most memorable games from the past three years. We would love to see everyone come out and support this weekend to watch us #beatthebruins on Saturday at 12 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. vs. UC Irvine. Both games are at Spieker Aquatics Complex.
 
Go Bears!


February 20, 2020

Hey, water polo fans.
 
This week I wanted to introduce some of our honorary teammates. First, Brianna joined our team last year through a program called Team Impact. Brianna comes to our home games and gets to sit behind our bench and root us on a great team member. She recently celebrated her birthday and Claire Sonne made her and her family T-shirts with their picture on it!

 
Our second honorary team member is Vicky, a 92-year-old diver and master sewer who Coralie befriended after crossing paths with her coming in and off the pool deck every day in her hand-sewn and patched colorful jeans, jackets, and many other pieces of clothing. On Presidents Day, we got the opportunity to learn from Vicky as she helped us sew some flare onto new sweatshirts. She taught us all the things that we need for a sewing kit and how to get started sewing on our own. Thank you, Vicky!!

Our last, but not least, honorable teammate is Coralie's new puppy named Mouse, who regularly visits us at practice either hiding in Coralie's jacket or roaming around the pool deck to get his fair share of water polo viewing.

This past weekend we headed to UC Davis for a quick trip and single game against the Aggies that we won in a little bit of a too exciting two periods of overtime. This was our third time facing UC Davis this season - two regular season and one exhibition game – and we were victorious each time.
 
This weekend we head to the Barbara Kalbus Invitational held at UC Irvine. This tournament is always exciting and challenging. Playing four games in the span of three days, we will be facing most of the top-ranked teams and be tested every step of the way. We start of the weekend by facing the University of Michigan, also for the third time this season. Again, this will be a challenge to see how much better we can get each time we play the same team. The first time we beat them by one goal, the second time by two, and maybe this next time by three?? The game against Michigan starts at 3 p.m.
 
Go Bears!


February 14, 2020

Hello, and welcome back to another week with Cal Women's Water Polo and Happy Valentine's Day!
 
I asked some of my teammates what their Valentine's Day plans were and freshmen Ruby Swadling and Isabell Williams, our newest spring admits, let me in on a secret that they were going to leave us some cute little Valentine's - like the type you get in elementary school - in our lockers. Georgia Gilmore told me that her Valentine's Day plans are to "hydrate, carbo load, watch film. read the game sheet thoroughly, repeat" in preparation for our game against UC Davis tomorrow. For me, Valentine's Day always reminds me of my love for our team, coaches, and the game of water polo, and how fortunate I, and my teammates, are to be a part of this program at Cal.
 
We headed to Stockton last Saturday to play a single game against the University of Pacific Tigers. This is the pool that NCAAs will be held, and it was an exciting experience to think that in about three months from now we could be competing for a national championship title, which would be the first ever for Cal Women's Water Polo, in that same pool. The game against UOP went great, and with a 17-9 win, it felt like our first solidified defeat of the season.
 
Something about playing collegiate athletics that has always been the most fun for me is being able to travel places with your teammates. Last weekend, we had an exceptionally fun van ride with our fearless driver, and our assistant coach, Molly. I took shotgun while Kristina Garcia with juniors Cassidy Ball, Claire Sonne, and Cambria Greer all sitting closely behind. Of course, our trip was highlighted by one of Cam's classic multidimensional stories, ending with Claire and Kristina concluding that Cam was 10 when her brother was 5 when Cam threw her brother in the pool and then pretended to save him. Also, we developed Cam's new nickname "Cranberry." All of this occurred while Molly, who is deaf in one ear, pretended like she couldn't hear anything. But occasionally, if we say something funny enough, she will crack a laugh.
 
We are excited for our quick trip to Davis tomorrow before we head to the UCI Barbara Kalbus Tournament next weekend!


February 7, 2020

Hey, Bears!
 
Yet another exciting and turbulent week for us here in Berkeley. We headed to Stanford early Saturday morning to compete in a tournament for the third weekend in a row.  We played Michigan and UC Davis on Saturday, with the game against Davis being an exhibition game. We had solid performances in each game, and everyone a chance to get some playing time – including freshman Caitlin Mary Parker Allen scoring FOUR goals against Davis.
 
Recent grad Rachael Lewin and her mom were kind enough to send us along some delicious Rice Krispy treats to boost our energy between our games (We miss you, Rach - even though you are living it up in Europe!).
 
On Sunday, we faced Stanford who we fell to this time. Luckily for us, we have many opportunities to practice before our rematches down the line!! (We will see you all at the Big Splash on April 11^th). 


While Groundhog Day on Sunday determined that spring has officially started, the days here in Berkeley have been chilly as ever. I think that everyone internally screams (and sometimes externally) when we walk on the pool deck to see no steam rising from the pool, meaning it's just as cold as the freezing air. Most of us SoCal girls aren't used to the chilly NorCal air. But with the chill comes beautiful, clear East Bay views and unbeatable sunsets. Carla Traplin and Hannah DeRose were smart enough to snap some beautiful pictures of the sunset with #nofilter, as Carla reminded me. 

This past week we continued to do some more team building with our "Hard Hat" book club. Daily Hartmeier and Cam Greer created a spreadsheet showing words that each of us chose about what we look for in the ultimate teammate. The words that are bigger are the words chosen most often by members of the team. Reliability and honesty appeared largest, which I think is interesting because Daily and Cam are definitely some of our most reliable and honest teammates, both amazing at bringing energy, laughter, and generosity to our program. 

This Saturday, we head to Stockton for a game against University of the Pacific. This year, the NCAA Championships will be held at UOP, so this will be a great opportunity to get some pool time and practice (and hopefully a win) to give us a little boost!


January 31, 2020

Hello, and welcome to another installment of Jump in with Jackie!
 
This past weekend was an exciting one, to say the least, but definitely contained some ups and downs. In our home opener against UC Irvine, we came out strong and finished with a win! We showed a great improvement from the Gaucho Invite, when we lost to the Anteaters. After a win against UC Davis and an unfortunate loss to SJSU, we played an exhibition game against Stanford. While it was only an exhibition, playing Stanford always brings up the long historical rivalry and both teams were raring to go. After leading 2-0 after the first quarter, we ended up winning the game by one. While that was exciting, I'm even more excited to have the opportunity to play them again this weekend in a game that counts. Chop the trees!

This past week, everyone really got settled into school and our daily routines. While we have schoolwork outside of water polo, sometimes Coralie likes to give us a little homework and reading herself. This year we joined as a team to do a book club reading of the book, "The Hard Hat" by Jon Gordon. This book describes the sportsmanship and great teamwork of a lacrosse player named George Boiardi, who was killed in a competition while playing for Cornell University. The book describes 21 ways George was a splendid example of a good teammate and team player, from being first in the locker room and last to leave the field, and helping out all the guys on his team. I think that everyone enjoyed reading this book, and it really opened our eyes to the ways that each of us can improve and work on being a great teammate.

 
Something special we do after each win is award someone a slightly silly looking patched-up Cal hat. It can be representation of good teamwork, excellence performance, or even taking three ejections for the team. Once you are awarded the hat, you have the opportunity to pass it on to the next winner. This year, as a suggestion from the book, each person wrote down a word that describes them on the hat to show what each of us bring to the table every day, and to help inspire and remind us of why we put in such hard work day in and day out.

 
This weekend, we head to Stanford for yet another tournament where we face Michigan, UC Davis, and Stanford all for the second time this season. I think the tournament will be another great opportunity to show our continual growth and grit for this season.
 
Go Bears!


January 24, 2020

Hello, and welcome back!
 
To get everyone caught up, the team bused down to Santa Barbara last Friday night and, after stopping at the UCSB pool for a quick loosen out, headed over to the Raisins', who kindly hosted the team for dinner!
 
Unfortunately, I was not able to be there Friday night as I flew in from Helena, Montana after attending my grandfather's memorial service Thursday. I thought as a tribute to him, I would talk about three traits that he embodied that I also witnessed from my teammates this past weekend/week. Firstly, generosity is shown by my teammates pretty much all of the time, in little and big ways. An example of this is how during hell month each of the upperclassmen adopt a freshman in a way by letting her stay in our off-campus apartments while the dorms are closed. It's fun to witness everyone's willingness to welcome teammates into their homes and host for close to two weeks. Secondly, a good sense of humor. Something special about our team this year is our ability to make everything fun and be able to laugh at ourselves and mess around with others, but also finding that fine balance of knowing when to tune in and be serious. Something fun that we always do before a game is do a little dance to allow ourselves to loosen out the nerves and laugh at ourselves before we get serious and down to business. Highlights of these dances for me are Georgia Gilmore killing it (while roasting the rest of us for our lack of rhythm) and Sophie Leggett and Grace Raisin running around the circle pumping everybody up. Lastly, preciseness. As a physicist, my grandpa always wanted to do everything exact. Something that Coralie tends to emphasize a lot is how preciseness is important for our ability to execute what is needed from us in the pool. Preciseness on our center entries leads to ejections and preciseness on our man up plays lead to goals. This was exhibited during our last possession of our game versus Michigan last weekend, when tied up with 30 seconds left, a precise entry to Grace Raisin led to an ejection drawn and a precisely played-out 6-on-5 and a game winning buzzer-beating goal by Claire Sonne (WOOHOO)!
 
While the Santa Barbara tournament didn't go entirely as planned, I think it was a great learning experience and showed our young team how much potential and growth we have coming for us in the future. Falling to UC Irvine and UC San Diego, each for the first time in my collegiate career, reminded us that all teams are competitive and that respecting our opponent and playing our hardest in every moment is essential to our success as a team this season. I'm excited to see what strides we make going forward. And with that, practice makes perfect… so back to Spieker Aquatics Complex we go for more purposeful trainings and preparations for our next competitions.
 
This week marks our first week back to school – which means a lot more studying and a lot less practicing. We cut down our whopping 35 hours of water polo practice to 20 hours per week. The start of school always seems like a hectic time while everyone gets settled into their classes and begins to assimilate into a new schedule. I always get a little sad during this time because I have always found "hell" month as a fun time to connect with teammates and get to fully focus on water polo without the distractions of school or friends and other students in town. During that time, it feels like we get Berkeley all to ourselves for a couple of weeks while everyone is still on winter break. With that being said, the most exciting thing about being back in school with all the students back is our home games. This weekend, we have our home opener with the Cal Cup tournament, including an exciting rematch against UC Irvine to be played on Saturday morning. Come out and support!!! See you all there!
 
 
January 17, 2020

Hello, Cal Water Polo supporters!
 
Happy New Year and welcome to this year's blog! Traditionally, each year a senior on our team writes a weekly blog to bring you behind the scenes of Cal Women's Water Polo's trainings, events, and other team activities. This year I have the wonderful opportunity to jump in with you all to bring you what happens in and out of the pool with our team.
 
Everyone returned back to campus on Jan. 2 from their respective homes, which happen to be all over the world. That included two newcomers to our squad - Ruby Swadling from Australia and Isabel Williams from Maryland. We kicked off our winter "fun" month by heading out to Sonoma to get away, connect with our teammates, and get in touch with nature in NorCal's beautiful wine country. Setting our home base at Sonoma Broadway Farms, we roamed the farm, even finding some kittens that Kristina Garcia (aka the cat whisperer) was able to lure out and contemplated stealing (just kidding!). We also participated in a ropes course at Challenge Sonoma, which definitely pushed our boundaries by hanging and jumping out of trees 40 feet in the air. And we ventured out to Dilion Beach for dune running and a dip in the icy ocean. Of course, all these fun activities were squeezed in between challenging, but very rewarding training sessions.

 
Some of my favorite moments from this trip were waking up to our wonderful director of operations, Michael Nielsen, cooking us up gourmet breakfasts including eggs, bacon, coffee, bagels, and much more (Thank you, Michael!!), and when we played "Guess that Teammate." This game was highlighted by Catie Wallace doing a hilarious impersonation of Hannah DeRose and her distinctive stiff walking and, of course, Molly imitating Coralie.

 After returning to Berkeley and completing a few more practices at Spieker Aquatics Complex, we kicked off our season pretty early this year by playing our first game at San Jose State this past Saturday. The first game of the season always tends to be nerve racking and a little rusty despite all of our hard work in our trainings. While starting off a little slow, the game really kicked off and gained momentum with a rare half court goal by our goalie (and my beloved roommate) Cass Ball. Additionally, goals by some of our freshmen, Sophie Leggett and Lily Turner, and a great steal by Shea Salvino jump-started us into a scoring streak during the third and fourth quarters and solidifying our first win of the season. Woohoo, Go Bears! 

 The next day, we finally had our first day off to relax, catch up on some sleep (and laundry!), and, of course, for most of us, hang out with our teammates even more before returning Monday to hit some hard trainings to prepare us for the weekend ahead. Today, we are travelling to Santa Barbara to compete in our first tournament of the year. Tournaments have always been one the most mentally challenging but rewarding parts of our season. It's always been impressive to watch our improvement from the first game of the weekend to the last, even if we are dead beat by the end of it! I'm super excited for this weekend and the competitive games we hope to have.

 
Check back in next week to hear about this weekend and follow up on more Cal Women's Water Polo!