California Golden Bears Athletics
California
Hawai'i
No. 3 Cal Faces Big West's Best In Hawaii
3/22/2023 2:32 PM | Women's Water Polo
Bears Get Rematch With No. 5 'Bows
AT DUKE KAHANAMOKU AQUATIC COMPLEX | HONOLULU, HAWAII
SATURDAY, MARCH 25
NO. 3 CAL (15-4, 2-1) AT NO. 5 HAWAII (14-3, 2-0) | 9 P.M. PT
LIVE STATS
SUNDAY, MARCH 26
NO. 9 LONG BEACH STATE (13-5, 3-0) VS NO. 3 CAL (15-4, 2-1) | 5 P.M. PT
LIVE STATS
The No. 3 California women's water polo team heads to Honolulu this week to clash with a pair of Big West schools in No. 5 Hawaii (14-3) and No. 9 Long Beach State (13-5). This will begin the final two-week stretch of nonconference play for the Golden Bears (15-4), who are coming off a four-game homestand in which they won three of four games. Redshirt freshman Claire Rowell took home MPSF Newcomer of the Week honors after helping lead Cal close last week out with wins of 13-9 over No. 14 Harvard and 9-7 over No. 19 Indiana. Prior to that, the Bears nearly defeated No. 2 USC, falling in a thrilling 15-14 back-and-forth overtime affair. While Sunday's game with Long Beach State will be the first meeting of the year between the two teams, Cal and Hawaii will get a rematch of their own overtime thriller from last month that ended in an 11-10 Bear victory.
BEAR NECESSITIES
DEFENSE SHINES IN PAIR OF WINS
For the second week this season, the Bears held back-to-back opponents to single-digit goals. Senior goalkeeper Isabel Williams led the defensive charge with an average of nine saves per game and a ridiculous 10 total steals in Cal's wins over Harvard and Indiana. Ruby Swadling continued her recent offensive surge with a third hat trick in four outings against Harvard. Fellow junior Reagan Whitney also put away three goals for the first time since early February. Three days later against Indiana, Rowell led the Bears in scoring for the first time with four goals.
NEWCOMERS OF THE WEEK
After tallying an earned exclusion and a block to go with her career-highs of four goals and three steals, Rowell became the second Bear this season to be named the MPSF Newcomer of the Week. She joined freshman Millie Quin, who won the award two weeks prior with her own team-leading four-goal effort in a 17-11 win over then-No. 9 Arizona State.
SAVED BY THE ISABEL
After becoming the second Cal goalie to be named a First Team All-American last year, Isabel Williams has continued to shine at the heart of her team's defense this season. The Severna Park, Maryland, native paces the MPSF in total saves (178) and leads the pack in saves per game (9.37) by a significant margin. She has been an absolute menace in passing lanes as well, with her 10 steals in two games last week moving her to No. 2 in the conference with 32 for the year. With 470 career saves and counting, she recently moved up to No. 7 on the Bears' all-time saves list and is closing in on Madison Tagg (489) for the six spot. At her current rate, Williams will crack the Bears' all-time top-5 two games into the postseason. She also ranks in the conference's top 10 for steals with 27, including 10 over her last three outings. In the Feb. 26 win over the Bruins, she had her third game of 14 or more saves this season, with her season-high 15 coming against Fresno State on Jan. 22. In 2022, Williams led the MPSF with 10.7 saves per game and amassed 245 overall - the fourth-highest single-season mark in program history. After last season, she also spent time training with the U.S. National Team.
RUBY ON FIRE
Junior All-American Ruby Swadling has been on a tear of late, registering three hat tricks in her last five games and 13 goals over that span. One game after dishing out a season-best four assists in Cal's 17-11 MPSF-opening win over ASU, she kept the Bears in it against USC with a career-best six goals. She currently leads the team in goals (32) and points (48).
BATTLES: LOS ANGELES
Feb. 26 vs. UCLA: Ruby Swadling scored a team-high three goals for the second time this season and Isabel Williams finished one save shy of a season-high with 14 to lead the Bears to a 9-7 win over No. 4 UCLA in the Barbara Kalbus Invitational third-place game. It was the Bears' first win over a top-three opponent in 2023 and second straight over the Bruins dating back to last season.
March 11 vs. USC: In one of their biggest tests of the season, the Bears rose to the challenge against USC, led by junior All-American Ruby Swadling's career-high six goals. Cal fell behind by four goals in the first half, but used a 4-0 run to tie the game in the third. That was the first of six second-half equalizers. Trailing by two with over a minute left in regulation, Swadling scored twice to force overtime. Maryn Dempsey's hat-trick-sealing goal early in the first extra session gave Cal its only lead of the day, 13-12. Isabel Williams later put in a dramatic tying 7-on-6 goal with 21 seconds to go in the second overtime period, but the Trojans scored in the final seconds to seal the win. Cecily Turner also scored three times, giving the Bears their first trio of hat tricks this season.
NEWCOMERS PUTTING IN WORK
The game against USC was the first all year in which a Cal freshman didn't find the back of the net. In the seven games prior to that, freshmen had accounted for 40 percent of the team's goals. Millie Quin led the way with 10 over that stretch, scoring a season-best four times in March 4's 17-11 win over ASU on her way to MPSF Newcomer of the Week honors. Abbi Magee and redshirt freshman Janna Tauscher both scored eight times over that same span. Tauscher is the Bears' leading freshman goalscorer with 19, while Quin has 18, Magee has 13 and Claire Rowell has 10. On two occasions last month, more than half of Cal's goals were scored by its freshmen. They found the back of the net five times in the Bears' 8-3 win over UC Davis on Feb. 24 and 11 times in the 19-5 victory over California Baptist on Feb. 11.
BEARS VS. THE RANKINGS
Cal is 15-0 against teams ranked No. 3 or worse and 0-4 against the top-two.
INSIDE THE LAIR: GROWING THE SPORT OF WATER POLO
Fana Fuqua and Isabel Williams have been both witnesses and instruments of change within the world of water polo, promoting interest, accessibility and diversity. Read the full feature story to learn more about their impact on the growth of the sport they love!
RUBY'S TRIUMPHANT RETURN
Attacker Ruby Swadling opted out of the 2021 season after earning a spot on the MPSF All-Newcomer Team as a freshman in 2020. She returned last season and emerged as one of the top players in the conference, totalling 67 points (35 goals, 32 assists) to go along with 23 steals. Swadling earned ACWPC All-American honorable mention after the season.
UP-AND-COMERS
The Bears were one of only two teams to place two players on the MPSF All-Newcomer last season when Rozanne Voorvelt and Jessie Rose both earned the honor. Voorvelt put up significant numbers during her freshman season, accumulating 14 goals, 17 assists and 16 field blocks. Rose broke into the Bears' starting lineup at the outset of the season and had one of the more memorable Cal goals in recent history when she converted in sudden victory overtime to lift the Bears to a victory over Stanford. Rose had six goals and 13 assists as a freshman last year.
COMING UP ROSES
Sophomore Rozanne Voorvelt followed up a promising freshman campaign with a successful summer playing for The Netherlands National Team. Voorvelt, along with former Cal center and four-time All-American Kitty Lynn Joustra, helped the Dutch win the bronze medal at the 2022 FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Voorvelt scored four goals in three games for The Netherlands.
STRONG START
The 2023 season got off to a promising start when the Bears defeated three top-10 opponents at the Bulldog Fest in Fresno. Cal opened the season by defeating No. 5 UC Irvine 15-10 then followed up with a 13-10 victory over No. 7 Michigan and a 16-10 triumph over No. 8 Fresno State. Seniors Shea Salvino and Cecily Turner and sophomore Rozanne Voorvelt each scored seven goals during the weekend, with Salvino being recognized as the MPSF Player of the Week for her efforts. The Bears had 14 different players score goals during the tournament, including the first career goals for freshmen Millie Quin, Janna Tauscher and Abbi Magee.
AMONG THE ELITE
Cal is one of the top programs in the country, having advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Championship in six of the past seven non-COVID seasons. In each of those seasons, the Bears have finished in the top-4 in the national rankings. The program has also produced 21 Olympians, including six that competed in Tokyo in 2021.
CLASSROOM PROWESS
Not only are the Bears reaching lofty heights in the pool, they are doing so in the classroom as well. Cal had a whopping 20 student-athletes earn ACWPC All-Academic Awards last season, and have had double-digit honorees seven times in the previous eight years. Senior Sydney Hammill, who has also won the Golden Bear Award for having the top GPA on the team in each of the past two seasons, collected her third consecutive ACWPC All-Academic Outstanding honor last year for having a cumulative GPA over 3.71.
WOMEN'S SPORTS AMPLIFICATION CHALLENGE
Cal Athletics is celebrating 50 years of Title IX by joining schools across the country in the Women's Sports Amplification Challenge. To participate, simply find the "Check-In Here" QR Code located just inside the main entrance at Spieker Aquatics Complex and scan to boost Cal's rank and be eligible to win Amazon gift cards.
ABOUT NO. 5 HAWAII
• Bears won 11-10 in OT in only meeting of 2023
• Rainbow Wahine have had a No. 5 national ranking since the second week of the season
• Only three losses have come to No. 4 UCLA, No. 3 Cal, and No. 2 USC
• Bia Mantellato Dias ranks third in Big West with team-leading 51 goals
• CAL ALL-TIME VS. HAWAII: 34-11
ABOUT NO. 9 LONG BEACH STATE
• Rachael Kowalchik ranks 6th in Big West with 42 goals
• Bears have won last 10 meetings
• Lost at home to No. 7-T Princeton last Tuesday
• 2-2 record against the MPSF this season
• CAL ALL-TIME VS. LBSU: 21-7
STAY POSTED
For further coverage of Cal women's water polo, follow the Bears on Twitter (@CalWWPolo), Instagram (@calwwpolo) and Facebook (CalWomensWaterPolo).
