April 19, 2006

Games Notes (pdf) | Schedule & Results | Roster | National Top 20 | The MPSF

SENIOR DAY
Saturday will be Senior Day for the water polo team as the program will honor its eight departing seniors. The first class of Sun Devils to be recruited, compete for four years and graduate from Arizona State includes Elaine Bentley, Kim Doll, Adriane Mota, Holly Newman, Heather Rempfer, Kimberlee Stevens, Jill Szuszkiewicz and Tessa Wyborny. The octet has combined to score 220 goals, assist on another 196 and record 416 total points in 127 games, giving them an average of 1.77 goals per game, 1.58 assists per game and 3.35 points per game. In their collective time in Tempe, these eight women have accounted for nearly 27 percent of all goals scored, 34 percent of all assists and 30 percent of all points.

GOLD GAME!
The San Diego State game also will serve as the Sun Devils' annual Gold Game. All fans are encouraged to wear gold to the game and support the Sun Devils.

WHERE THEY STAND
Arizona State enters the weekend tied with Long Beach State for ninth place as both hold a 4-7 record in conference play. Ahead of both teams sit three schools tied for sixth place, including UC Irvine, San Jose State and ASU's opponent this weekend, San Diego State.

PLAYOFF RACE
All but one of the teams in the MPSF have a conference game slated for this weekend with all playing a role in the final standings used for seeding at the MPSF Championships next weekend in Irvine, Calif. Entering the weekend, USC, UCLA, Stanford, California and Hawaii have secured the Top 5 positions, respectively, with three teams (UC Irvine, San Jose State and San Diego State) tied for sixth place and another two (Arizona State and Long Beach State) one game behind tied for ninth. Many different scenarios can play out this weekend, but based upon tie-breaking criteria, if all three teams in sixth lose and ASU wins, the best the Sun Devils could finish would be seventh as UCI defeated ASU earlier this season to take the tie breaker.

LET'S REVIEW
Arizona State did not play last weekend as the Sun Devils took a week off from competition heading into the final weekend of the season.

SO CLOSE
Arizona State is 12-11 on the year with four of those loses coming by one-goal margins, including twice in the last five games played. So far this season, the Sun Devils defeated No. 5 Hawaii, 8-7, but have lost its last four one-goal games including 6-5 at No. 10 UC Santa Barbara, 7-6 at No. 4 Loyola Marymount, 8-7 at home against No. 6 California and 7-6 in overtime at No. 12 Long Beach State.

IN THE POLLS
The latest National Top 20 ranking was release April 19 with the Sun Devils holding onto the No. 11 position for the second week in a row. San Diego State is ranked No. 8 this week.

AGAINST THE MPSF
In two-plus seasons of play as a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), the Sun Devils have recorded an 9-24 record while going 7-9 at home including a pair of upset victories last season and ASU's 8-7 upset of No. 5 Hawaii earlier this season. Arizona State's record could have been better, but it holds a 2-9 record in one-goal contests, including three on the road this season.

CLOSE WITH A WIN?
In the four previous seasons the Sun Devils have played, the team has not had a fun time playing its final regular season game of the year as it has lost its last three, including an 11-5 decision at No. 14 San Diego State one year ago. In the same span, the Sun Devils hold a 1-3 record in their final home game of the season and snapped a three-game skid last year by defeating No. 9 San Jose State, 9-1, in the home finale.

ROOKIE ROWIE ROLLING
Rowie Webster has certainly made a name for herself in her first collegiate season with the Sun Devils as she has added her name to several season and career record lists. In the freshman season record, Webster ranks first in both goals (45) and points (60) while sitting seventh in assists (15). On the overall season lists, she ranks third in goals scored (45) and points (60) while her 45 goals scored also rank as the 10th-most in a career at ASU.

MORE ROOKIES
Rookie Addison Doud also has added her name to the record lists as she ranks eighth on the overall season goals scored board with 35 while standing third in freshman season goals (35) and seventh in freshman season points (43).

BOWER CLIMBING
Ashley Bower scored three times over the weekend to bring her season total to 25 and her career total to 80, making her just the third Sun Devil to record 80 or more goals. Katie Hedley leads the all-time scoring category with 95 career goals while Katie Davis is second with 89. Bower and Hedley are both juniors and will look to become the first Sun Devils to break the century mark in career goals.

SCORING LEADER
Rowie Webster continues to lead the team in scoring this year as she has found the back of the cage 45 times in 2006, the third-most in a single season. With one regular season game remaining and at least two more slated in the conference tournament, Webster would need four more to tie for second and six more to tie Kim Yost (2002) for the season record of 51. Webster not only has been solid at scoring this year, she also has set up several goals as she leads the team in assists with 15 to give her the most points on the roster with 60. The record of 83 points in a season set by Yost may be out of her reach, but if she manages 10 more this season, she will become only the second player to reach the 70-point plateau.

AWESOME AUSSIES
Two of the Top 3 scorers on the roster this season hail from "The Land Down Under" as Melbourne native Rowie Webster and Bondi Beach native Ashley Bower continue to power the Sun Devil offense in 2006. Webster is the team's leading goal scorer (45), assist leader (15) and point scorer (60) while Bower is third in both goals (25) and points (35) while ranking tied for second with 10 assists.

BRICK WALL(ACE)
Sophomore goalie Caylinn Wallace continues to anchor the Sun Devil defense as she once again has posted solid numbers in the cage. This year, she has halted 193 shots, making a save 53 percent of the time, while recording 8.39 saves per game. Last year, when she was named the goalie on the MPSF All-Freshman Team, she stopped 243 shots (60 percent) and recorded 9.35 saves per game. The big difference between the two seasons is the number of games played. This year, ASU has played in just 23 compared to 32 in 2005.

ON TOP
Katie Hedley is now the new scoring queen of the Sun Devil program with 95 career goals. At the UCSB Gaucho Invitational (Feb. 25-26), Hedley tied the previous record of 89 (Katie Davis, 2003-04) when she scored a pair of goals in Arizona State's 11-3 defeat of Brown. In the next game, she scored once in a 10-8 defeat of No. 13 UC Irvine and then once again in an 8-6 victory over No. 11 UC Santa Barbara in the ninth-place contest. She now stands five shy of becoming the first Sun Devil to record 100 goals in a career.

LIGHTING UP THE SCORE BOARD
The 18 goals scored by the Sun Devils over Pacific marks the second-highest output in team history, with only a 20-2 defeat of Marist on January 24, 2004, at the Michigan Invitational topping that output. The 18-4 decision, however, did set a few records as the goal total was the most Arizona State has scored in an MPSF contest (old mark was a 13-4 victory over UOP on March 14, 2004); the most scored in any home game (old mark was a 14-0 defeat of UC Santa Cruz on February 1, 2003) and ties the mark for largest margin of victory in a home game at 14 (14-0 vs. UCSC in 2003).

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
According to the MPSF statistics, Rowie Webster is tied for fifth in the league in scoring with a 1.96 goals per game average (45 in 23 played) while fellow freshman Addison Doud ranks 20th with a 1.52 average (35 in 23). On the defensive side of the ball, Caylinn Wallace is this in saves per game (8.39), fourth in total saves (193) and 12th in goals against average (7.30). As a team, the Sun Devils are first in saves per game (8.70), 10th in goals against average (7.5), sixth in goals per game scored (8.0) and ninth in goals scored (184).

HAPPY TO UPSET
For the second week in a row, the Sun Devils scored an upset of Hawaii, this time recording an 8-7 decision in a home game played Feb. 21. At the Stanford Invitational 11 days earlier, the Sun Devils downed then No. 4 Hawaii, 8-5, to record a win over its highest ranked foe in the existence of the program. Then, on April 8, the Sun Devils added another upset victory as they traveled to San Jose, Calif., and handed No. 8 San Jose State a 5-3 defeat.

A BIT OF HISTORY
At the Stanford Invitational, the then-No. 16 Sun Devils recorded a 2-2 record to place seventh with their two victories coming over Top 10 teams as ASU defeated No. 4 Hawaii, 8-5, in the opening contest before closing out the weekend with a 13-7 defeat of No. 7 Michigan. The Sun Devils were rewarded for their performances as they climbed eight spots in the latest National Collegiate Women's Top 20 poll to No. 8 this week. The ranking marks the first time the Sun Devils have been a part of the Top 10 in the national rankings and their highest ranking bettering the No. 14 standing attained in week three of the 2004 season.

SCOUTING: SAN DIEGO STATE
The Aztecs enter the weekend with a 19-9 overall record and stand tied for sixth in the MSPF with a 5-6 record. San Diego State won its last contest, an 11-7 decision over visiting UC Santa Barbara, to snap a four-game losing streak that followed a 10-game winning streak. Head Coach Carin Crawford's team is led by Rachel Serna, who is ranked 19th with a 1.63 goals scored average and 39 total on the year. Goalie Sarah Kilgore is third in the MPSF with 206 total saves this season.

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN
Senior Tessa Wyborny and junior Raelyn Ritchie were selected as the captains for the 2006 team. Wyborny is set to start her fourth year with the program while Ritchie will begin her third as a member of the Arizona State program.

ALL-CONFERENCE
Caylinn Wallace returns for her second season this year following a remarkable rookie campaign that was capped with her earning a place on the All-MPSF Freshman team, becoming just the second Sun Devil player to earn a post season conference honor. Wallace set the school record for saves in a game with 22 in an 8-7 overtime upset of No. 8 UC Santa Barbara last year.

MONA PLUMMER AQUATIC CENTER
The Mona Plummer Aquatic Center serves as the home venue for both the water polo and men's and women's swimming and diving programs. Opened in July, 1981, the plant consists of three pools- an Olympic-size, 50 meter by 25 yards, seven-foot deep competition pool with a movable bulkhead; a 25-yard, 18-foot diving well; and a 25-yard eight-lane warm-up pool. The complex also offers a diving tower. The tower has three platforms (5, 7.5 and 10 meters), four springboards and a pair of 1- and 3-meter boards, which flank the tower.

NEXT TIME OUT
Arizona State will travel to Irvine, Calif., next weekend to compete in the MPSF Championships, hosted by UC Irvine. The Sun Devils' opponent and game time will not be known until Sunday or Monday, but ASU will open the tournament with one game on Thursday.