No. 19 Indiana water polo is coming off a split weekend when it lost to No. 2 University of Southern California and beat Whittier College on March 25 in California. Indiana will face No. 15 Arizona State this weekend in Bloomington and will have the opportunity to collect its first conference win this weekend.
The Hoosiers are in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference. In this past week’s rankings, the top four teams in the Collegiate Water Polo Association poll are all teams in Indiana’s conference.
The Hoosiers previously faced the Sun Devils on Feb. 24, when Indiana lost 5-3 at the Kalbus Invite. Indiana trailed Arizona State the whole game, but the Hoosiers’ defense kept the game competitive. Indiana senior goalie Mary Askew recorded 11 saves and 2 steals in the game, and the Hoosiers kept the Sun Devils scoreless in the fourth quarter.
However, Indiana only scored one point in the fourth quarter and was unable to overcome the 2-point deficit.
Since the meeting of the two teams, Arizona State has lost six out of its eight last games. All six of those losses came from ranked opponents, including then-No. 16 Harvard University, No. 1 Stanford University and No. 2 USC.
The Sun Devils’ two recent wins came against Salem University and Marist College on March 11-12 at the Arizona State Invitational. Arizona State Beat Salem 24-5 led by leading scorer junior attacker Luca Petovary with seven goals. The following day, Arizona State beat Marist 18-9 with the highlight of a hat trick from graduate student attacker Tina Doherty.
The Sun Devils’ freshman attacker Juliette Dhalluin has been a young leader for the team. After putting up a combined 15 goals and 10 assists at the Arizona State Invitational, she was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Newcomer of the Week. The freshman is averaging a hat trick per game and has 50 goals and 23 assists on the season.
The match between Indiana and Arizona State will begin at 1 p.m. April 1 at Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center (CBAC). The match will be televised on BTN+.
Follow reporter Marnie Sara (@marniesara5) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s water polo season.
