By snoadmin
Catharine von Schwarz has had her work cut out for her in her first season as the head women’s water polo coach at Long Beach State.
It’s been hard enough implementing a new system for a team that has had three different head coaches in three years, but when two key players missed a large chunk of the season because of an international competition, it made an already difficult job nearly impossible.
But now that everyone is back, von Schwarz thinks her team is now playing as well as it has all season.
“It has been an up-and-down season,” von Schwarz said. “It was difficult to adapt when we lost some players to the world championships, but while they were gone we became a better team, and now that they are back it makes us that much better.”
The women’s water polo team started the year 6-6, but then the team lost its two Brazilian players: Marina Canetti and Cecilia Canetti.
While the two sisters were with the Brazil National Team helping that squad to a ninth-place finish in the FINA World Championships, LBSU struggled in the pool, losing all six of its matches without the duo.
However, the players on the team agree with von Schwarz that the squad is now better off after going through the time without the Canetti sisters.
“We had to stop looking at [Marina and Cecilia] to carry the team,” senior Christina Wensman said. “We needed to start looking at all the players and it made us a better team.”
Wensman, who is one of only four seniors on the team, is leading the team in goals with 40, which is impressive considering her left knee, elbow and shoulder are all injured.
“I don’t want to quit the team,” Wensman said. “As long as I can keep walking, I’ll keep playing.”
Wensman has been a leader for an otherwise young team, leading the squad not with her mouth, but by her actions.
“When I was younger, I looked up to the older girls and watched how they practiced and competed,” Wensman said. “Now I’m a senior and I’m trying to show the other girls how to be a successful player.”
Another important player to the squad is senior Marina Canetti. Even though she, and her younger sister Cecilia, missed six games while playing in the world championships, the Brazilian is third on the team in goals with 28.
“It was my third world championships, and it was our best team finish since I was on the team,” Marina said. “It was a good experience playing with players that are older than me and learning from them.”
Now Marina is focused on a different tournament – the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament – that starts for No. 10-seeded LBSU (7-16, 3-9) on Thursday against No. 7-seeded California (10-10, 6-6) at Arizona State. In the one meeting between the two schools this year, California won 13-10.
“I’m confident we can do well,” Marina said. “We have six seniors on the team and it will be our last time playing with each other, so we are going to be ready.”
Wensman said she is also looking forward to the tournament.
“I’m really optimistic,” Wensman said. “I think we are going to play really well and I’m excited for [this] week.”
Von Schwarz said the only chance the team has to qualify for the NCAA Championships, which LBSU is hosting, is by winning the tournament.
“Our goal is to win it,” von Schwarz said.
