The No. 13 Hoosiers head to the Bruno Classic in Providence, Rhode Island, where they’ll meet against fellow CWPA rivals Brown and No. 21 Harvard in between matches with No. 16 Wagner and No. 20 Marist.
The matches won’t count against conference record—that won’t begin until April—but it will give IU a clear understanding of where it stacks up against the CWPA early in the season.
“We just haven’t gotten that experience of playing our conference games,” senior goalkeeper Mary Campbell said. “I think with just a couple of those games this weekend under our belt, we’ll be more towards where we need to be.”
The Hoosiers are coming off a pair of losses to No. 6 Arizona State two weekends ago still looking to establish themselves. Indiana head coach Barry King is working with one of his youngest and smallest rosters in recent years with just five upperclassmen leading nine freshmen and sophomores.
The young roster has made for its own share of unavoidable challenges and growing pains, Campbell said. That’s where weekend previews of conference opponents are especially valuable to measure where IU stands.
“With any new team, you’re dealing with a lot of homesick people,” she said. “You’re dealing with a lot of people who aren’t used to playing at this level. Like, ‘Oh shoot, we’ve got to go to the gym for so many hours a week. We’ve got to be in the pool for this amount of hours.’ So it comes with a lot of motivating the newer girls.”
Those problems aren’t exclusive to Indiana. This being an Olympic year, many of the traditional water polo powers across the country are playing with smaller, less experienced rosters. It’s become part of the sport.
Indiana has spent the last two weeks in Bloomington trying to learn from their Arizona road trip before a crash course in playing against CWPA opponents. Campbell said the Hoosiers’ biggest key is sharpening up their counter attack to try and jumpstart their offense with easy scoring opportunities.
More than anything else, she just wants to see the wins.
“It’s important to grow as a team and especially see how other teams in our conference are,” Campbell said,” but wins. We just need to win.”
The Indiana Hoosiers are amidst their 19th season as a varsity program, all under the tutelage of head coach Barry King. Their 30-game season continues with a stop in Providence, R.I. for the 2016 Bruno Classic.
Indiana returns 10 letterwinners from their 2015 campaign, including All-CWPA selections Kelly Matthews and Candyce Schroeder.
Takeaways from Tempe
The Hoosiers began their 2016 campaign with a weekend series against the Arizona State Sun Devils. Indiana fell short in both of their games, but the Hoosiers showed a lot of promise in their first weekend of competition. Underclassmen Kelly Matthews and Kate Pipkin led the Hoosiers in scoring with three goals each, with Pipkin earning her first career hat trick in just her second start. Another newcomer, Kaybree Albright, led the distribution effort with four assists.
Scouting the Seahawks
Indiana opens with their highest-ranked opponent of the weekend, No. 16 Wagner, The Seahawks have an even record after starting the year with five games against teams ranked in the top 25. Their big wins include an overtime triumph over No. 23 California Baptist and a one-goal win against No. 22 Long Beach State.
Bracing for the Bears
The Hoosiers will have an early look at a CWPA contender, Brown University, in their second game of the weekend. The Bears dropped their first two games of the season against No. 25 Iona and Villanova, but they’ll bring their best in their first home weekend of the season.
Casing the Crimson
Indiana’s third game of the weekend will be a vitally important matchup against Harvard. The Crimson are 1-2 in the early going, their lone win coming against Bucknell.
The Red Foxes’ File
Indiana’s last game of the weekend against Marist stands out from the others, as the Red Foxes are the only team on the slate who won the most recent meeting. Marist opened their year with a 1-3 showing at the Michigan Invitational, scoring a win against No. 18 San Diego State.
Of Note…
• 2015 CWPA Rookie of the Year Kelly Matthews is back for her sophomore season with the Hoosiers. Matthews netted 73 goals, an IU freshman record, in her debut campaign.
• Senior goalkeeper Mary Campbell begins her second season starting in the cage for Indiana. She currently ranks seventh on Indiana’s all-time saves list (424).
• Center Candyce Schroeder is IU’s top returning scorer in 2016. The senior has 110 career goals and 52 career assists to her name, and she’ll look to cause problems for opposing defenses this season.
• The Hoosiers roll out three newcomers for the 2016 season: center Kaybree Albright, attacker Kate Pipkin, and attackerMackenzie Rosenthal. This freshman trio has had an immediate impact on the Hoosiers’ efforts on both sides of the ball in the early stages of the season.
Swimming news courtesy of Indiana Water Polo.