April 21, 1997
No. 2 Ranked Bears Host National Qualifying Tournament
Fri.-Sun., April 25-27
National Qualifying Tournment
Spieker Aquatics Complex, Berkeley, CA
All Day
Noting The Bears
The No. 2 ranked California women's water polo team (23-6) fell to No. 1 ranked UCLA, 8-6, in the championship match of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament, Apr. 11-12 in Santa Barbara. Cal made it to the championship match by defeating UC Santa Barbara, 13-3; losing to UCLA, 10-4 and defeating Bay Area rival Stanford, 5-4. It was the fifth time the Bears had played their Los Angeles rival this season. Last season, Cal gave UCLA its only loss of the season (8-7) in the finals of the Western Regional Qualifying Tournament. The Bruins only loss this season was a 4-3 loss to the Bears, Feb. 15 at the UC San Diego Invitational. Cal has a 16-6 record against the National Qualifying Tournament field--1-4 versus No. 1 ranked UCLA, 3-2 versus No. 3 Stanford, 2-0 versus No. 4 San Diego State, 3-0 versus No. 5 UC Davis, 2-0 versus No. 7 UC Santa Barbara, 2-0 versus No. 7 USC, 1-0 versus No. 11 UC San Diego and 2-0 versus No. 13 Pacific. The Bears have not played No. 18 ranked Washington and unranked Oregon. The top seven teams from that tournament automatically qualify for the national championships, May 8-11 in Ann Arbor, MI.
Head Coach Maureen O'Toole
Maureen O'Toole is in her second year as Cal's head women's water polo coach with a 55-12 (.821) career record. Last season, O'Toole led her squad to a 32-6 record and a second place national finished. She was named Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Northern Division Coach of the Year (in both '96 and '97) and Women's Collegiate I Division Coach of the Year by the American Water Polo Coaches Association. As a player, O'Toole is a 15-time MVP of the U.S. National Championships, a six-time world MVP and is a four-time national Sportswomen of the Year as named by the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Noting MPSF Tournament
The National Qualifying Tournament will feature 10 women's water polo teams--A Bracket UCLA, UC San Diego, Pacific; B Bracket Cal, USC, Washington; C Bracket Stanford, UC Santa Barbara, Oregon and D Bracket San Diego State, UC Davis. On Friday, Cal will face USC at 12:40 p.m and Washington at 5:20 p.m. If the Bears win both matches Friday, they will play the second place finisher in the C Bracket at 9:50 a.m. and the first place finisher in the C Bracket at 4:50 p.m. If Cal makes it to the tournament's championship match, it will play at 1:45 p.m. Sunday. For tournament results dial Pac-10 Faxback at 503-614-4044 with request number 123051. Tournament brackets are on following page.
Cal Player Notes
The Bears have been led in scoring this season by Alisa von Hartitzsch (Tulsa, OK), sophomore two-meter Kailya Young (Vancouver, British Columbia) and freshman driver Colette Glinkowski (Danville, CA). Alisa, a junior transfer from Brown, has been a scoring machine for Cal tallying 89 goals in 29 matches. She scored 11 goals in the MPSF Tournament and was named Northern Division Player of the Year. Young is second on the team in scoring with 47 goals and was the Bears leading scorer last year as a freshman with 85 points and was a first team All-America selection. Glinkowski is third on the squad in scoring with 36 goals and scored eight goals in a single match Mar. 26 versus UC Santa Cruz. Besides Young, other returning players who earned honors last season include sophomore goalie Evi Schueller (Mountain View, CA), who was second team All-America and this season was named MPSF Northern Division Goalie of the Year. Schueller, Young and von Hartitzsch were all named to the MPSF Northern Division first team, while senior driver Karen Cook (Foster City, CA) and sophomore driver Melanie von Hartitzsch (Tulsa, OK) were second team all-conference selections.
1997 Golden Bear Women's Water Polo Statistics
NAME POINTS
Alisa von Hartitzsch 89
Kaliya Young 47
Colette Glinkowski 36
Melanie von Hartitzsch 32
Karen Cook 24
Heather Petri 21
Erin Kelley 14
Alicia Razzari 14
Kari Johnson 12
Brooke Spittler 12
Jen Chan 11
Karie Gray 11
Beth Rasala 10
Tiffiny Duncan 7
Keri Hoover 7
Sabrina Nespeca 1
Beth Sprinkle 1
Elisa Sue 1
CALIFORNIA TOTALS 350
OPPONENT TOTALS 135
GOALKEEPER G MINS GA SAVES AG
Lisa Berquist 6 63 8 20 3.56
Evi Schueller 29 670 117 168 4.89
Jillian Silva 7 91 10 20 3.08
CAL TOTALS 29 824 135 208 4.59
