Long Beach State’s women’s water polo team closes the regular season with two home games, starting tonight against No. 8-ranked UC Irvine at the 49er Campus Pool at 7 p.m.
The No. 13-ranked 49ers (15-13 overall, 4-6 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) will bring a four-game winning streak into the rare night contest.
“It’s hard not to get up and be ready to play at the end of the season,” head coach Catharine von Schwarz said. “Especially for a night game.”
Added senior 2-meter Dayna Wawrzynski, “I’m anxious to play UCI, they’re a big rival.”
The Anteaters (13-9 overall, 5-6 MPSF), currently eighth in the conference standings, could drop with a loss to ninth-place LBSU. The MPSF Tournament will take place April 24 in San Diego.
UCI senior Jessica Lewis leads the Anteaters with 33 goals while senior goalkeeper Lauren Machanis has racked up 175 saves.
Freshman goalkeeper Kristen Stragier, whose 243 saves rank fifth in the MPSF, is one save shy of LBSU’s all-time single-season record set by Bri Hawkins in 2005. With seven more saves, Stragier will move into fourth-place on the 49ers’ all-time career list.
Wawrzynski has been the hot hand offensively for the 49ers all season, scoring a team- and career-best 59 goals on the year despite recording just 23 career goals coming into the season. Her total ranks sixth on the all-time single-season list at LBSU and her 2.11 goals per game average ranks sixth in the MPSF.
“[This year] she said, ‘I’m going to bring my hardest and work the hardest,'” von Schwarz said of Wawrzynski, who has scored in each of the last 11 games. “I think she’s a different player and found a passion for the game she didn’t have before.”
That passion helped Wawrzynski earn co-Player of the Week honors in the MPSF last week. The senior scored 16 goals in four games to lead the 49ers to a 4-0 record, including a 10-9 upset victory over No. 4-ranked Hawaii April 11.
“It was so exciting when I found out, I had no idea,” she said. “All the coaches vote on it, so it’s flattering.”
Wawrzynski’s final home game, along with Rachelle Denaro, Brittany Thornback and Geraldine DiTommaso, will be against No. 3-ranked Southern California, Sunday at noon.
“I always enjoy playing [USC],” Wawrzynski said. “With Senior Day, it should be really emotional.”
The Women of Troy (16-6 overall, 9-2 MPSF), the third-highest scoring team in the conference, are led by junior driver Michelle Stein, who leads the Women of Troy with 46 goals.
Sophomore goalkeeper Tumua Anae has made 173 saves in the cage for USC, ranked second in the MPSF defensively.
