Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Women's Water Polo Makes Trip to Western Pennsylvania Saturday
3/22/2012 8:00:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
March 22, 2012
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Just a few days after returning from a 12-game trip to California, the Bucknell women's water polo team will head out on the road Saturday. The Bison will play a 1 p.m. game against league foe Mercyhurst and will then take on Grove City at 4 p.m. in a non-conference matchup. Both contests will be played at Grove City's College Pool.
Bucknell played a difficult schedule in California, facing seven ranked opponents during the long trip.
Bucknell Women's Water Polo Notebook (10-18, 1-3 CWPA)
• Bucknell, on Saturday, will play a game in the Eastern time zone for the first time since facing Iona on March 4.
• Of Bucknell's 10 losses in California, five were by three goals or fewer.
• Bucknell has just four regular-season games remaining. The Bison have two games Saturday and then two more on April 7 against nationally ranked Michigan and George Washington.
• Bucknell has faced 10 ranked opponents in 2012, including four in a row to conclude last week's California trip.
• Bucknell played a program-record 36 games in 2008. The Bison have played 28 games this year and will play a minimum of 10 additional contests, depending on their results at the Southern Championships and Eastern Championship.
• Hallie Kennan, Julianne Valdes and Becca Shopiro enter this weekend as the only Bison to earn a starting assignment in all 28 games this year.
• It's a tight race for the team lead in goals as Taylor Barnett has 41, Valdes has 40 and Kennan has 37. Eight Bison have reached double figures in goals. Ten different players reached that plateau a year ago.
• Barnett leads the Bison with 56 ejections drawn this season. That figure ranks 11th on the program's single-season list. Meagan Gins holds the record with 96 ejections drawn in 2007.
• Thanks to a 48-for-62 performance by Valdes, Bucknell has claimed 74 of 114 sprints this season. The Bison record for sprints won as a team is 97, while Valdes' 48 victories place her in a tie for third with Eileen Ketterer on the school's single-season list.
• Rena Heim has a career-high 202 saves in goal this year. That figure ranks 11th on the program's single-season list. She now has 325 stops in her two-year career, placing her fifth on the career ledger, 65 behind fourth-place Kristen D'Agostino. Heim has nine double-figure save performances in 23 starts this year.
• Valdes enters the weekend with 87 career goals. She is trying to become just the second current Bison to reach the 100-goal plateau for her career. Kennan reached that milestone last year and now ranks sixth on the all-time list with 163.
• Kennan enters the weekend having scored at least one goal in 25 of this year's 28 games. She has registered at least one point in 27 of the 28 contests.
• Barnett, who scored three goals in each of her last two games, enters the weekend with a team-high 14 multi-goal outings this year.
• Mercyhurst enters the weekend with a 5-10 record this year, while Grove City is 7-6. Grove City does play a game at Penn State Behrend on Thursday evening.
Bucknell's Weekly Awards in 2012
CWPA Southern Division Player of the Week
- Julianne Valdes (Feb. 27)
Bison on Career Record Lists
Brittany Connell: Saves (7th, 218)
Rena Heim (5th, 325)
Hallie Kennan: Points (6th, 270), Goals (6th, 163), Assists (6th, 107), Shots (5th, 432)
Tara Murao: Ejections Drawn (10th, 85)
Stephanie Ovalle: Sprints (8th, 40)
Amanda Skonezney: Sprints (1st, 149), Games Started (10th, 101)
Julianne Valdes: Sprints (7th, 48)
Bucknell vs. Weekend Opponents
• Bucknell vs. Mercyhurst: 4-1 (Bucknell captured 9-3 victory at season-opening Princeton Invitational.)
• Bucknell vs. Grove City: 4-0 (First meeting between Bucknell and Grove City since April 20, 2002.)
Up Next
• Bucknell will wrap up its regular season in two weeks when it faces Michigan and George Washington Saturday, April 7, in College Park, Md.
