The season has quickly taken off and I am going to attempt to catch you all up to date on what has been happening inside the polo team. We kicked off the season in Santa Barbara where we went 1-1. It was a good way to start off the season and get back into the groove of playing against good schools. We were a little rusty against UCSB but regained some confidence against Pomona.

After the game we had a chance to stop by the hospital on the way home to see our teammate Drew. Even though she was in and out of sleep from the medications, she was still very happy to see all of us. She is doing really well and is able to get up and walk around. Each day she is getting a little stronger. She should be going home in the next couple of days.

Our next tournament was mentally and physically tough for us. We ended up playing five games in two days against some top teams in the country. Even though we did not do as well as we wanted in wins and losses, we still improved as a team and ended the weekend with the program's first win against Long Beach. I am pretty sure that the hotel's beds and breakfast were the reason for our win. It probably had the most comfortable bed I had ever slept in. Even though the beds were comfortable, there were a couple of rooms that did not sleep well due to the fact that they had snorers in their room. I will not name any names, but just know that you would have thought the walls were coming down if you would have had to sleep with them. But we learn from our mistakes. So this weekend we put all five snorers in the same room so that they can sleep peacefully in the melody of their own snores.

This weekend was another challenging time for us. We won out first game against Long Beach, which put us in the top 8 bracket. Our next game was SDSU, a team that just beat UCLA. It was a night game and for a couple of quarters it was raining cats and dogs. I had never played in rain like that before. We played great all the way up to the third quarter. We led early in the second quarter 3-2 and by half time we were only down 4-3. We played strong, but didn't fall our way.

Our goalie, Megan Pezzola, had an outstanding game. She was so pumped up for the game because her twin sister was a starter and leading scorer of the SDSU team. Megan held her to only one goal.

We are all back home now and rested up yesterday on our day off. We started practice again this morning and focused on shooting...something that was not in our favor this past weekend. We will continue to work hard and prepare for our home tournament this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Check our schedule for game times and come on out and support us.

-Toro

P.S. If you have been to any of our games you might have noticed my team calling me Toro rather than Kaitlin. Well they nicknamed me Toro...not sure why? Now you know who they are yelling at when you hear "TORO" from across the pool. I might as well key you in on the other nicknames on the team:

No. 1 Megan Wetherbee – Meg–0, Shmegan
No. 2 Jessica Manke – Mankeee
No. 4 Alyson Moss – Aly MO
No. 6 Malia Pahoa – Mole
No. 8 Kellie Goodwin – Kell Bell
No. 10 Shannon McKenzie – Shan Dog
No. 11 Amanda Nesbit – Nez, Nesbit
No. 12 Haylie Glandon – Joe
No. 14 Sierra Peltcher – Pelch
No. 15 Brittani Marquez – Quez
No. 22 Alexis Mitchell – Pebbles

This week has been a challenging week for the team. We arrived back to practice on Monday without three of our teammates. Kerinn Fields, Haylie Glandon, and Drew Haines got into a car accident on their way to practice and were all sent to the hospital. Haylie is back in Bakersfield with us, but Kerinn stayed the night in the hospital to have a few more tests done to make sure she was okay to go. Our thoughts and prayers are with Drew and her family as they face a long recovery. Drew posted a Facebook status Monday night that let us know that she was going in for surgery on her back and in her words was "doing great!" Last night she had her surgery. Her mom, Cori, told us Tuesday morning that Drew was in surgery all night and to send all our love and prayers to her. Drew is a strong girl and she will get though this. She will remain in our thoughts and prayers as we continue to press foward in water polo practice. We are preparing for this weekend's games against Santa Barbara and Pomona-Pitzer. We love you Drew.

Kaitlin

Christmas break is over and we are back in the pool. We have just concluded our fist week of practice. We are quickly getting back into the grove of things. Along with polo starting up again, we also started up winter quarter. Many of us are busy with school and polo everyday. Overall we had a good week of practice. Near the end of the week, things were starting to click and the team was working hard throughout practices. On our first day back, Jason gave us a test swim set. Many of us did not make it, so Jason decided that every Monday night those who did not make the test set have to come to the pool and do the set again until you make it. It looks like I will be at the pool on Monday nights trying to make the set. It's a bummer that we have to pay consequences, but I think it is a good way to motivate us through punishment to do the set. I just hope it doesn't take me multiple Mondays to finally finish it. I will keep you posted on mine and the team's status.

Today was the strongest day for the team. We did a lot of rough drills for specific positions. We saw a lot of hard work and focus coming from out hole sets and guards. I am excited to see how freshman guard Sam Shead and freshman Jessica Browning develop over the course of the year...so far they are doing great. After that we had 15 minutes of hard scrimmage. I was surprised at some of the talent I saw come out of some of the players today. I am excited for this coming game season. Our first game is on Jan 23rd. You can check out our updated schedule. We have three hope tournaments this year, including the WWPA championship tournament in April/May. Mark your calendars!

Kaitlin

We just finished finals and we all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with our families back home. Starting on Monday, we all came back to school to have two weeks of captain's practices. So far we have done a lot of shooting and scrimmaging as a team. Each night we have team dinners. On Monday night we had rice, steak, and salad. The steak was bomb! Tonight (Tuesday) all of us girls got together for a pot luck dinner.

 

Megan (Wetherbee) won the award for the best taco salad I have ever eaten. Kellie and Sierra had wonderful, heart artery clogging fettuccini alfredo. As for the dessert, I think that Brittani Marquez's brownies were delicious.

    

Besides just eating food, we all made a poster with our names on it. We then passed it around and each girl on the team who then wrote a little note on each poster. It was a team-bonding sort of activity.

To switch it up a little, I have asked Megan to give you a glimpse into her life as a water polo goalie...

...Hi all you blogger's, I first wanted to say thank you to the booster club people for taking there time to feed us. It is a very kind thing of them to do and we gladly appreciate it. But as for a glimpse in to the life of a goalie, I endure very painful leg strengthening workouts. On a normal day the goalies will warm up with the team and start to warm our legs up a little after that. We sometimes do a kickboard set or lunges in the cage to better our leg strength. For a tough workout we will use the brick or a diver's brick and hold it out of the water for about 30 minutes. I believe that is the hardest set will ever have to do. Something easy would be long passing with a ball or using the heavy ball to do two handed passing with. At the end of the day, I just like to know that I am getting a good workout. Go CSUB!!!!

This past Friday we had team pictures and then a team get-together to celebrate Kellie (Goodwin's) and Sierra (Peltcher's) birthdays. Pictures are as usual...hair done, make up on, smile ready, and a 15-minute late start.



You will have to check out all of your new mug shots on our player profiles. After the pictures, we headed over to the girls house for some team time. It was not really that cold on Friday night, but we decided the week prior that we wanted to make smores.

 
A few of us huddle around Sierra, Megan, and Kellie's fireplace to roast marshmallows even though it was a good 80 degrees in the house. When the pizza man delivered the pizza, he seemed a little puzzled as he saw us sweating around the fire while roasting the marshmallows. The night was short because on Saturday we had two scrimmages against Cal Baptist.

We all got to the pool around 9 a.m. to set up for the game. The freshman were quickly asked to get in the pool and set up the lane lines before the rest of the team had to get in and warm up. I must say, it is so nice not being a freshman anymore. Our first game went pretty well. It was nice to get back into the groove of playing a game. It was also a great chance for all of the new members of the team to get in and be able to play with us. By the end of the day, things were flowing a bit better with the team chemistry.

Thanks to all of our parents we had a great lunch waiting for us after our first game. I think we all managed to have a serving of everything that was on the tables. Cal Baptist along with all the other fans on the pool deck got in on the lunch. Our second game was similar to our first. We had a few plays that if fully executed could have turned our way, but instead backfired on us. Overall, I think it was a successful day because I think we improved as a team as well as individually. "Everyday, in everyway, we get a little better!" The day ended off well as I announced to all the girls that my brother had just proposed to our fellow athlete and swimmer Macie Hammond. FYI....I set them up last year. ;)

As of today, we went back down to eight hours per week. Next week we will be preparing for finals and will have a nice break from polo to focus. After the holidays are over, we will be ready for our game season. Tonight a few of us will be heading to the gym to watch our women's basketball team start off their season against Fresno Pacific. Until next time....

Go Roadrunners!

Outside of the pool we have had a few more team get togethers. A few recruits came in so we decided to have a game night at my place. Although my home is small and the team is large in numbers, we were still able to sit everyone. I had a chance to teach all the girls my favorite game from back home. It is a combination of catch phrase and charades. While some of us were playing the game, others were painting shirts for the Women's Soccer Breast Cancer Awareness Game. On Friday night many of us showed up to support our soccer team in pink shirts.

The team has really been benefiting from arrival of Jason's new son Charlie. We are almost certain that Charlie is bringing out the best of Jason. Something has to be the cause of a week of no swim sets. ;) We enjoyed that week but know that this week we dive back into the dreaded swim sets.

Until next time...Go Roadrunners!

We are entering our fifth week of school, which means two things; one, that we are halfway through our first quarter and two, it is time for midterms! Everyday brings us one step closer to the start of our season in January. This past week was our first week of 20 hours/week practices. It has been a hard transition from eight hours to 20 hours but all of us are hanging in there and getting used to the longer workouts. We are all continuing to get stronger and faster as we come together as a team, in and out of the water.

On Saturday we decided that a team potluck at River Walk Park would be an appropriate way to end the week. With over 20 girls bringing food to share, we had a little more food than we needed.

 

 

This week we are looking forward to the alumni water polo game that will follow the alumni swim meet on Saturday. We know one thing is for sure, at least we know we will be in better shape than the old lady alums. If you get a chance come on out to the pool on Saturday and get a sneak peak of this year's squad.

Until next time...Go Roadrunners!