Long Beach State University Athletics
49ers Set to Host Two Days of Polo
4/9/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
April 9, 2008
LONG BEACH--Long Beach State Water Polo (11-13, 3-6 MPSF) will host their final six games at home, continuing with No. 4-ranked Hawaii (14-6, 7-3 MPSF) on Friday at 3 p.m. and the LBSU Mini Tournament on Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. featuring the 49ers, Wahine, Sonoma State (11-11 prior to playing UCLA), Claremont-Mudd (6-10 prior to three games this week) and Pomona-Pitzter (9-9 prior to two games this week).
For the tournament, the 49ers will play Claremont-Mudd at 8 a.m., before Hawaii and Sonoma State match up at 9:15 a.m. The 49ers will then host Pomona at 10:30 a.m., before the Wahine play Claremont at 11:45 a.m. The tournament concludes with the 49ers hosting Sonoma State at 1 p.m. and Hawaii playing Pomona at 2:15 p.m.
The 49ers have dropped three straight and split their last six games as senior Dayna Wawrzynski continues to lead the club with 43 goals. Wawrzynski has scored in each of hte last six games, tallying four goals twice. Freshman Lauren Sieprath has 33 goals in her first season, while sophomore Branwyn Lee has come off the bench to score 27 goals.
Five different players this season have scored four goals in a game this season; Wawrzynski, Lee, Cecilia Canetti, Kelsie Emerick and Meaghan Leonard.
Freshman Kristen Stragier needs five more saves to become the fourth goalie all-time to amass 200 saves in a season. Stragier had 14 saves in the win over Maryland last month and had a career-best 15 saves in the win at UC San Diego to begin the year. Stragier has reached double digits in saves six times. Stragier has logged most of the minutes this season in goal for the 49ers, the second-straight year LBSU has primarily one goalie.
The 49ers are hitting 34 percent of their shots on the season with Lee shooting a team-high 52 percent from the pool. Wawrzysnki, who has already surpassed her career total in just her final season, is shooting 44 percent. Freshman Meaghan Leonard has a team-high 38 earned ejections as the 49ers are converting on just 26 of their 6-on-5 opportunities.
Sieprath along with the 23 goals, has a team-high 17 assists (tying junior Keala O'Sullivan) and 11 steals.
