April 14, 2008
NO. 8 ANTEATERS AT LONG BEACH STATE, LOYOLA MARYMOUNT: The No. 8 UC Irvine women's water polo team (14-9, 5-6) will conclude the regular season with a pair of road matches. The team opens the week Thursday as they head to Long Beach to play No. 13 Long Beach State at 7:00 p.m. in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play at the campus pool. UCI then heads to Los Angeles Friday to face No. 12 Loyola Marymount at 3:00 p.m. in non-conference play at the Burns Aquatics Center.
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: The No. 13 49ers are 15-13 overall and 4-6 in MPSF play. Dayna Wawrzynski is LBSU's leading scorer. UCI has defeated the 49ers twice so far this season.
The No. 12 Lions are 17-10 overall entering the week. Nicole Hughes is the leading scorer for the Lions. LMU beat UCI 9-8 earlier this season at the Triton Invitational.
WEEK IN REVIEW: The `Eaters went 1-1 in MPSF play on the road defeating No. 9 San Jose State 6-5 in the fourth overtime and losing 10-4 at No. 2 Stanford. Sophomore Kat Plummer (Thousand Oaks HS) had three goals in the two matches to lead the team. Junior Gianna Rossi (Fresno/Central HS) scored the winning goal in the fourth overtime against SJSU. Senior keeper Lauren Machanis (Carlsbad HS) had 10 saves against the Cardinal.
UCI RANKED 8TH IN NATION: The Anteaters are ranked 8th in the country in the National Collegiate Water Polo poll. UCI ended 2007 ranked 10th nationally. The team was ranked as high as No. 4 last season which is the highest the Anteaters have been ranked in school history.
ANTEATER LEADERS: Senior Jessica Lewis leads the team with 33 goals on the year. Junior Gianna Rossi is second with 28 goals on the year. Sophomore Kat Plummer is third with 27 goals. Junior Sarah Frost (Santa Barbara HS) is fourth with 23 goals this season. Senior keeper Lauren Machanis has 175 saves this season to lead the team.
ANTEATERS IN THE RECORD BOOK: Junior Gianna Rossi is fourth all-time at UCI with 124 goals. Senior Jessica Lewis is fifth with 116 goals. Junior Julia Fancher is seventh all-time with 86 goals. Senior keeper Lauren Machanis holds the UCI all-time record with 874 career saves. Kat Plummer has currently scored in 11 straight matches tying the fourth longest streak in UCI history.
