History repeats itself for 2nd-place Hoosiers

The past two years, the No. 16 IU water polo team has come up short at the Collegiate Water Polo Association Western Division championship game, losing to Michigan and finishing \nsecond. \n2006 was no different. The Hoosiers dropped the title match to the Wolverines and finished second at the competition \nSunday.\nWhile IU lost in the CWPA Western Division championship game, they still advance to the Eastern Championship next week at Princeton University. In order to earn a seed as one of the eight remaining teams competing for the Final Four, the Hoosiers will have to win the Eastern Championship or earn one of the remaining three at-large bids.\nThe Hoosiers lost to No. 17 Michigan 4-3 Sunday in a match that they never led. The Wolverines jumped out to a 2-0 lead, though junior Brooke Zimmerman cut the margin to one as she scored in the remaining seconds of the first period.\nAfter Michigan extended its lead to 3-1, Zimmerman added her second goal of the game toward the end of the first half.\nThe two teams traded goals to end the game, and IU dropped to 22-10 on the season.\nJunior Melissa Soria capped off her weekend performance, which included two hat tricks, by scoring her 53rd goal of the season at the end of the third period. Soria leads the Hoosiers in goals on the season and scored a total of ten throughout the CWPA Western Division tournament.\nThe Hoosiers opened the weekend with two matches on Saturday against Gannon University and Slippery Rock University, respectively. IU had little trouble advancing to the championship game against Michigan, as they defeated Gannon 15-3 and Slippery Rock 11-2.\nIU opened the match against Gannon with 10 unanswered goals to end the first half, including four from Soria. Gannon was able to score its first goal 1:30 into the second half but were unable to cut the deficit any further. Seven Hoosiers scored to give IU its 21st win on the season.\nThe second game of the day started out with Slippery Rock taking an early 2-0 lead over IU. Soria then scored two consecutive goals to tie the game. Then senior Courtney Livak gave the Hoosiers the lead for good. IU held Slippery Rock scoreless for the rest of the game.\nZimmerman added two assists in the Gannon match to give her 41 on the year while senior Janis Pardy gained three during the weekend. Zimmerman and Pardy became the second and third Hoosiers to eclipse the 40-assist mark in the team's short history. Deb Simone reached 40 assists three times, setting the school record at 45 in 1999.\nNext weekend, the Hoosiers will compete in the CWPA Eastern Championship, though their opponents have not yet been announced. Should the Hoosiers advance to the NCAA Championship tournament, they will have one week off before the tournament starts May 12 in \nDavis, Calif.