April 19, 2004

VILLANOVA, PA. - On Saturday and Sunday, Apr. 17 and 18, the Villanova Swim Center was the site of the 2004 Southern Division Championships, won by top seed Princeton. Villanova, the fourth seed going into the tournament, finished in fourth place after defeating Maryland, 13-2, in Sunday's final game.

The five-team tournament decided the winner of the Collegiate Water Polo Association's Southern Division. The Southern is one of four divisions that sends teams to the Eastern Championships, which will be held at Bucknell University Apr. 23-25. Princeton and George Washington earned automatic bids as the top two teams from the Southern Division.

The Wildcats are hoping to get an at-large bid after a 2-3 weekend. Villanova opened play with a 13-8 loss to Princeton, but the effort against the Tigers set the tone for a competitive weekend for Villanova.

"We came out strong, pumped up against Princeton," explained Villanova first-year head coach Paige Cull. "The girls played unbelievably well, with a lot of confidence. We controlled the tempo for the first half of the game, but Princeton is a good team. They may have been a little surprised with how we came out, so they made some adjustments and started making their shots."

Cull's squad rebounded with a 9-4 win over Maryland, but in 'Nova's third and final game on Saturday, the 'Cats were defeated by George Washington, 11-6.

"We really had a poor showing against George Washington," said Cull. "We really didn't start to play well until the end of the game, and that was about three quarters too late."

The loss to the Colonials sent Villanova into the third place game, where it was defeated by Bucknell, 9-4. A telling statistic in the loss to the Bison was each team's performance in man-up opportunities. Bucknell cashed in on two out of three, while Villanova converted on just one of six. That represented a sharp contrast from the GW game, in which the Wildcat defense did not allow a single goal on man-up opportunities for the Colonials, while VU converted more than half of its own.

Cull mentioned how important Bucknell's depth was in outlasting Villanova.

The Wildcats then locked up fourth place with the easy victory over the Terrapins. That game marked the final games on Villanova's campus for senior captains Katherine Kidde (Pasadena, Calif./Polytechnic) and Jenny Rosick (Pringle, Pa./Wyoming Valley West).

"Maryland is a building program," said first year Villanova head coach Paige Cull. "I played a lot of our second string against them, and they did well. It was important to play them because fatigue starts to set in after playing so many important games.

For Villanova, Kim Pare once again led the way offensively, scoring 15 goals for the weekend, and posting double-digit efforts in goals in each of the five games. Pare now has 65 scores on the season. Ellen Howe played a solid all-around tournament, scoring seven goals and dishing out 13 assists. She also added three steals and 15 ejections/penalty fouls drawn, including tying a season high with five in the final game against Maryland.

Reigning Southern Division Payer of the Week Jess Wells and Denise Hanes split the goalkeeping duties. Wells made 24 saves in four starts, while Hanes turned away nine shots in the win over Maryland for fourth place.