Women's water polo wins 2

By FRANK FERRIOLA
Collegian Sports Writer

The Penn State women were up 5-4 against George Washington in the second half of what seemed to be a well-matched water polo game. Then Penn State scored seven unanswered goals, breaking the game wide open with a 12-4 lead.

The Colonial women never recovered. The Penn State women's water polo club won the first of four games in its first Eastern Water Polo Association tournament of the season last weekend at McCoy Natatorium.

The club team won two games --including a 12-3 victory against Pennsylvania -- while dropping two hard-fought games against Bucknell and nationally ranked Slippery Rock by scores of 14-6 and 20-1, respectively.

Penn State's Amy Stamm, a returning player, knew what to expect going into the club's game against Division I Slippery Rock.

"There's such a separation in the levels of play," she said. "They're ranked No. 2 in the NCAA and we're a club team."

Stamm said the Big Ten is thinking about making water polo a Div. I sport within the next few years. Consequently, the club will be able to start recruiting players from places such as California and Florida, where water polo is very big, she added.

The club will be participating in its second and last regular-season tournament -- at Slippery Rock --in two weeks. It will face Villanova, Maryland and Princeton. The final standings after that tournament will be added to last weekend's standings and then used to decide seeds at eastern regionals.

Kevin Oliver, a member of the men's water polo club and coach of the women, said the women's team has a good shot at making the regionals.

"The team's a lot stronger than last year," he said. "We have a lot of returning starters and good, fast freshmen this year."

The women's club, which practices five times a week at 10 p.m. and is in only its second season, is showing a lot of heart, Stamm added.

"A lot of people have the desire to do better this year," she said.