Women's Water Polo Finishes Regular Season Against Four Ranked Opponents at Princeton

LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Bucknell women's water polo team will close out its challenging regular season schedule with four CWPA contests against ranked opponents this upcoming weekend in Princeton, N.J. Bucknell will face No. 6 Michigan and No. 18 Harvard on Saturday, followed by contests against No. 13 Indiana and No. 15 Princeton on Saturday.

The Bison enter the weekend 14-12 overall and 2-1 in CWPA competition. Bucknell has posted an impressive 14-0 record versus non-ranked foes this season, but the Bison have yet to win a game this year against a nationally ranked team in 12 attempts.

Bucknell's four upcoming opponents have all had strong play in recent years, having combined to win the last eight CWPA Championship titles, including Princeton's one-goal win vs. Indiana last season. Michigan is 18-0 versus the Bison all-time and Harvard is 16-11. Indiana has won eight of the 10 matchups between the two squads, while Princeton holds a 37-5 record over Bucknell. The Bison last defeated one of these teams in 2014, a 7-6 victory over Harvard in which Hannah Sunday scored two goals and assisted on another.

Having won five of their past seven matches, the Bison will be looking to use their momentum moving forward. They were victorious in two of the three contests last weekend in the team's trip to Washington D.C., its first CWPA competition of the year. After a 15-10 opening loss to nationally ranked Hartwick, the Bison rebounded with a 13-9 victory over Brown and 15-13 triumph over George Washington in overtime.

Five different players scored at least five goals on the weekend, while four contributed at least five assists. Eleanor Marrs led all players with 13 points (eight goals, five assists), while Colleen Barron contributed 12 points (seven goals, five assists) and Emily Konishi added 11 points (two goals, nine assists). In net, Manuela Herrera tallied 19 saves in 62 minutes of action.

Offensively, Sunday scored eight goals between the three games, adding a team-high 25 ejections drawn. She now has 99 ejections drawn this year, which puts her second all-time in a single season after passing Meagan Gins' total of 96 from 2007 and her own 2015 total of 90. Marta Considine set her single-game high with three goals versus Brown, while her two assists each against Hartwick and George Washington tied her season's single-game high.

On the season, Sunday still leads the squad with 59 goals. Marrs' 51 assists rank sixth in program history for a single season. Konishi and Barron also joined the 30-goal club thanks to their strong weekend performances.

Following this weekend's four matches at Princeton's DeNunzio Pool, Bucknell will begin the CWPA Championship on April 29. This year's championship event will be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Bucknell's Weekly Awards/Honors in 2016
CWPA Player of the Week: Eleanor Marrs (March 3, March 31)