Women's water polo ranked seventh in MPSF preseason coaches' poll

2011 MPSF Preseason Coaches' Poll in PDF Format

The women's water polo team has been ranked seventh in the annual Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Preseason Women's Water Polo Coaches' poll, the conference announced today.

The Sun Devils feature four seniors, including two-time ACWPC All-American Lynlee Smith, 2010 ACWPC All-American Sarah Harris. Seniors Nikki Unbehaun, 10th on ASU's career goals list with 71, and Candice Phillippe are the only two players entering their fourth year with the Sun Devils. Junior Mariam Salloum has recorded 50 or more points in each of her first two seasons at ASU, putting her 10th on the school's career points list with 101, and is fifth on the school's all-time assists list with 53. Sophomore Shannon Haas netted 47 goals in her debut season, the second-highest output by a freshman in school history, and sophomore goalie Amanda Young made 123 saves in 22 matches in her first year with the Sun Devils.

Stanford, the defending conference champions, took first in the rankings, followed by 2010 NCAA champion USC. Hawaii earned one first-place vote and is third. UCLA is fourth, California is fifth and San Jose State is sixth. San Diego State rounds out the poll in eighth.

The top-four seeds in the 2010 NCAA Tournament were MPSF teams (No.1 Stanford, No. 2 USC, No.3 UCLA and No.4 California) and all eight schools were ranked in the top-10 of the National Collegiate Top-20 poll at some point in the season. An MPSF team has won every women's water polo championship since the NCAA began recognizing a champion in 2001.