Water polo squad uses break to rest for four weekend matches

After a weekend off, the Hoosiers are back to the grind.

After an 8-3 season start, the women’s water polo team will travel to Troy, N.Y., for four weekend matchups. On Saturday, IU will take on Hartwick and Brown, while Sunday’s rematch with Maryland highlights the competition.

IU Coach Barry King and the rest of the team have spent the week off preparing for the team’s conference matchups. The games will contribute to seeding for the season-ending conference tournament.

“The primary focus is improving some things that we may not have been full speed on at San Diego, but more importantly, preparing specifically for Hartwick and Maryland for those conference matches,” King said. “Those are by far our largest priorities this weekend, so we’ve been spending a lot of time talking about what we want to do as far as their personnel goes and how we’re going to attack and defend their various options.”

After last week’s play, senior Cassie Wyckoff was named Western Division Defensive Player of the Week after leading the Triton Invitational in saves, with 39 in 124 minutes of play.

Leading the team in the net and as a senior, Wyckoff works to keep the team hungry moving forward.

“I think we’ve been working hard in practice, focusing on our defense, continuing with the program that we have with our offense, and the girls have a tenacity to win, so that really helps,” Wyckoff said.

In their last match, IU topped Maryland 11-10 to take fifth place in the tournament, and the Hoosiers will meet the team again Sunday.

“We’ve had a history with both teams. Hartwick is very good,” Wyckoff said. “They came in third last year, and Maryland is also very good, and they’re going to give it their all. As long as we just take it play-by-play and keep in mind the importance of how to defeat the team, then we’ll put ourselves in position to win.”