Jan. 25, 2007

The end is here . . .
Wednesday, May 2, 2007, 2:22 p.m.

One last team picture just after the conference award ceremony.  Yes, you are looking at the WWPA Coach of the Year.  (Thanks Kathy Knutson for the pic!)

Jenny Knutson, Kellie Dunn, Claire Linney, and Christie Miller taking a break from warm ups for a photo op.

The team at our amazing dinner on Saturday night in Santa Cruz.

Since last weekend was the last games of the season, this will also be my final blog.  I know you are all very sad, but all good things must come to an end!  As most of you already know, we had our conference tournament (WWPAs) in Santa Cruz the past weekend.  We won our first game on Friday against San Bernadino, which advanced us to play against LMU on Saturday.  Our game against LMU was probably the pinnacle of our season as we battled hard for 4 full quarters, and even had a 3 goal lead going into the 4th quarter.  Unfortunately we didn't quite hold out against the Lions, and we lost by 1 goal with just seconds to go.  It was a heartbreaker of a loss, but it was the best game that our women's water polo team has ever played. 

Even though that loss placed us in the 3rd place game and ended our chances at the NCAA tournament, it definitely demonstrated how much our team has improved over my 4 years on the team.  I also think that game against LMU brought us a lot of respect from all the other teams in our conference.  We ended up playing against UC San Diego for 3rd place, but we couldn't quite pull it together for a win to end our season on.  It was a good game too, but after such a big fight in the game on Saturday we just didn't have much left.

Even though we were hoping to match or improve on our 3rd place finish from last year, 4th in our conference was still a strong finish.  It's hard not to be disappointed, but we all realize that we are still building and growing as a team.  This season was just another step in getting to our goal of winning conference and making it to NCAAs.  All in all, it was a great season.  Seniors Andrea Evans, Kristin Barnes, and Katie Radvanyi each received All-Conference honors and our coach Keith Wilbur received the Coach of the Year award for the second year running! 

The WWPA tournament was a really fun weekend overall.  Both of my parents came down and Thursday night we went out to dinner with my housemates.  The next day we left for Santa Cruz and they got to watch all of the games over the weekend.  Friday night was a lot of fun because we ate dinner on the beach and wandered around the beach and wharf for awhile.  We had a lot of fun watching the sea lions swim around underneath the dock and then explored downtown Santa Cruz for awhile.  Saturday night we had a huge team dinner at Katie Radvanyi's family winery and Kaylie Pezzuto's dad catered our dinner.  It was such an amazing time because all the families got to get to know each other, the food was amazing, and it was a beautiful night.  It was just a great way to bring everyone together on our final weekend of water polo. 

Now that water polo is over I feel like I am kind of getting my life back.  You don't realize how little free time you have until it's over.  This week is really busy though as I am playing catch up on my reading and I have a paper due tomorrow as well as a big midterm.  It's nice having that extra time to get everything done in this week.  After this week my workload should slow down a bit and I will be able to just enjoy the last part of my senior year. 

I guess that is pretty much the end of season wrap up!  I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all of my teammates for an amazing 4 years of water polo.  I will miss you all so much and you have all really made my water polo career what it is.  I don't know what I would have done without you.  I love you all!  Thanks to all the parents who have taken care of me by adopting me when my own family couldn't be here, for all the post-game treats, and everything else you have done!  You are all amazing and I truly appreciate everything you have done for me and the team.  Thanks to my own parents too of course for everything you have done for me over the years too.  There's no way I could list it all, so I'm not even going to try.  Also, thank you to Coach for giving me a great 4 years here as well.  I know we don't tell you thank you enough for all that you do, but I know everyone on the team appreciates you so much!  And one last one (because this could go on forever), thanks to all my friends who have come to so many games and cheered us on.  I love my fans!  So yeah, like I was saying, thank you to everyone who has made my 4 years of water polo at Santa Clara so amazing. 

Enough of that though.  If you want one last chance to catch some SCU women's water polo action this year we have our annual alumni game on Saturday at 1pm in our home pool.  So come see your favorite water polo alumni, say goodbye to your seniors, and have some fun watching one last game this year. 

Love,
Kellie

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Conference Weekend!
Wednesday, April 25, 2007, 2:00 p.m.

Hello again!  In case you missed out this weekend, we won all three of our games against Sonoma State, East Bay, and Pacific.  We played Sonoma on Saturday and our other two games were on Sunday.  It was a lot of driving around for one weekend since all of our games were away, but it gave us a lot of time to bond as we drove all over.  After our game against Pacific we had to fill up on gas for the drive home from Stockton.  I was driving one of the school vans and everyone in my van took the opportunity to stock up on essentials like chips, pop, candy, and more for the drive back to school since these things all really help the recovery process after a weekend of games.  Kathryn Fraser really pulled through by purchasing the biggest box of powdered sugar donut holes the mini-mart had to offer for the whole van.  Needless to say, everyone was really caffeinated and sugared up by the time we got back to SCU. 

This coming weekend is WWPAs (our conference tournament) in Santa Cruz.  It's really close to school compared to the previous years' tournaments, so there is really no excuse as to why you can't come!  Our first game is on Friday at 3:00 pm against the winner of Santa Cruz and San Bernadino.  The rest of the weekend will depend on how we do, but definitely come cheer us on! 

In general, life is good!  I am still enjoying my class schedule with the four day weekends, but it does make for long days on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I've been enjoying the sunshine this week and just spending time with my housemates when I'm not in class, at practice, or doing homework.  Oh, and my parents are coming down from Portland for WWPAs, so I am excited to see them and have them down here.  I guess that pretty much covers it for the past week! 

I will reiterate:  BIG weekend.  First game of tournament: Friday at 3pm at UCSC.  Be there!  GO BRONCOS!  Yay for water polo!

Kellie

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Last Home Game & Senior Day
Thursday, April 19, 2007, 10:16 a.m.

The seniors getting announced before the last home game of the season.

Claire Linney and Kellie Dunn posing with the cupcakes that read "SCU H20 POLO SENIORS ROCK!"

Sunday was our last home game of the season, which meant it was the last home game ever for the seniors!  In case you missed out, the game was started out by announcing both teams.  After teams were announced, each senior was talked about and we all got flowers and a hug from Coach Keith Wilbur.  After that it was game time!  We won our game against Santa Cruz, which felt good after losing to Santa Barbara on Saturday.  After the game we all got celebratory cupcakes thanks to Claire Linney and her mom.  They were complete with little pictures of all the seniors stuck into the frosting and we all made sure to eat the cupcake with our face on it!

This week has been crazy for me so far.  Practices have been somewhat hard since it is the end of our serious conditioning as we are down to less than 2 weeks left in the season.  I have also had a lot of work going on in all of my classes lately, so I am definitely ready for the weekend.  I also started realizing this week that as I am going to be graduating in June I need to figure out my life after, so I went to the Career Fair last night on campus.  It's hard to believe I've been here for 4 years now!  Other than that there haven't been too many new developments in my life, so I guess that is all for now!

We have a game at Sonoma State at 1pm on Saturday and games at East Bay at 11am and 3pm, so if you are in the area, stop by and root us on!  Oh, and mark your calendars for next weekend because it's WWPAs in Santa Cruz and I know you all want to come watch that too!  Enjoy your weekend and Go Broncos!

Kellie

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Relays, games, and more!
Thursday, April 12, 2007, 10:09 a.m.

I hope everyone had a great Easter!  There isn't too much to report on this week since we didn't have any games and got the weekend off from practices for the holiday.  On Thursday, however, we did have a very exciting practice to end the week.  After a swim set, we spent the rest of practice having a "fun day" in the pool.  We were divided into teams and did relay races.  The strokes we swam in our relays were not the typical back, breast, fly, or free.  Our relay events ranged from swimming freestyle backwards, being Spiderman by using the lane line to pull across, corkscrew, elementary backstroke, and doing 5 strokes free followed by 3 somersaults all the way to the other side.  Since we are all highly competitive people these relay races took on a very serious edge, but we all had a lot of fun trying to do the strokes that our coach came up with.

After numerous weird relay races, we switched over to another game.  We all had to sit on a water polo ball and not let it out from under us while trying to knock out the ball of anyone who was not our year in school.  This game was also intense and in the end the juniors won, although Brianna Anderson put up a good fight as the last remaining sophomore against three juniors.  The last game we played was sharks and minnows.  This game was also not taken lightly.  Kendal Hildebrand was the last minnow standing, but unfortunately when it was the entire team against her she just couldn't make it.  It was a great way to end a hard week of practices and to start off the weekend. 

I spent Easter weekend in Portland.  It was the perfect break from school and water polo, especially since I never get the opportunity to go home since we have games and practices nearly every weekend.  Aside from all of that, school and classes are going well.  I love my schedule this quarter, especially since I only have two days of class.  This meant that I was able to go to the A's game yesterday afternoon with two of my housemates since we had practice off for the day. 

I guess that is all to report on for now.  We have two games this weekend and they are both in the area.  On Saturday we play at San Jose State against UC Santa Barbara at 3pm.  Sunday we are up against Santa Cruz at 1pm in our home pool.  It is the last home game ever for seniors Kristin Barnes, Katie Radvanyi, Andrea Evans, Mele Rehder, and me, so all the more reason to come show us some love!  I hope to see you there!

Kellie

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Happy Easter!
Wednesday, April 4, 2007, 2:04 p.m.

Liz Perry and Allie Lamb at the Davis Shootout

With spring break come and gone, we have now started the infamous "Spring Quarter."  At Santa Clara, Spring Quarter means a new set of classes that compete with the excitement of beautiful weather for students' attention.  It is also my last quarter before graduation, which is starting to get more real and scarier everyday!  This quarter I only have three classes and they are all on Tuesdays and Thursdays, meaning I have extended weekends.  I think I'm going to like my new schedule a lot!

Spring quarter also means that water polo season is wrapping up.  We have only three and a half weeks left before our conference tournament in Santa Cruz.  We are also really lucky this week as we only have three days of practice and get Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off for Easter weekend.  Of course that means that these three practices are extra hard, but it's worth it to get to have some time off for a few days.  I am really looking forward to this weekend because I'm going to go home to Portland for a few days!  Yay!

The water polo team spent its last weekend of spring break playing at UC Davis in a tournament.  We won three out of our four games, beating our rivals UC San Diego for the second time this year.  Unfortunately we had a lapse in our play against Bakersfield and lost to them, which will most likely mess up our seed for our conference tournament.  Overall, however, it was a good weekend.  We also had an amazing lunch at the home of Kathryn Fraser on our way to Davis on Friday afternoon.  It was a nice stop for a break from driving and let us relax a little bit before getting into tournament mode.  Some of the girls had fun jumping on the trampoline and luckily no one was seriously injured while doing so.  Mele Rehder did manage to draw blood though by skinning her knee. 

There isn't too much more to report on right now.  We don't have any games this weekend, so enjoy your weekend.  And have a happy Easter! 

Kellie

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Who needs Cabo?
Wednesday, March 28, 2007, 11:45 p.m.

Part of the team after playing a round of fugitive during spring break.

It's Spring Break here in Santa Clara, but for the water polo team that doesn't mean going home or lying on the beach in an exotic place.  I'm sure you are all dying to know just what we do to amuse ourselves during the break while stuck in Santa Clara.

For starters, we have practice all week long for three or four hours a day.  While you would think that would kill a lot of time, it does still leave most of our day to entertain ourselves.  Yesterday a group of us went and watched the softball game even though it was windy and a little chilly.  Meanwhile others saw movies.  We all rendezvoused for a team dinner at the house of Kristin Barnes.  The highlight of the team dinner for me was playing with her dogs. I miss my dog at home, so it's always nice going to a house where there is a dog to play with!

The week of spring break is great because so many parents step up and take us in for dinner, which means that we don't have to fend for ourselves as far as food goes.  On Saturday night we had a dinner that was sponsored by Mele Rehder and her mom with the theme of Breakfast for Dinner.  Our week also includes team dinners at the homes of Katie Gilmartin and Andrea Evans. 

Aside from amazing team dinners (thank you so much parents!), we have been successful at providing our own entertainment.  With the dorms nearly empty and hardly anyone around on campus and off, the team has taken over.  Last night there was a game of hide and seek in the Sanfilippo dorm.  Tonight we played a similar game called fugitive, which is a lot like cops and robbers.  Everyone was decked out in black in order to hide better in the dark.  Definitely a good time for everyone, and we even got in some cross training from all the running that was involved!

The junior class has a spring break tradition of their own as well.  Ever since their freshman year this group of girls has had a sleepover at the home of Randahl Capurro where they do "top secret" class bonding.  We (who are not a part of this class) assume it involves lots of eating, movies, and maybe hot tubbing, but we really don't know for sure.  Since they missed the dinner at Kristin's, we thought maybe we should find out for ourselves what really went on at Randahl's.  After Googling her address, we headed over to her house hidden under the darkness of night and worked together to quickly write messages in sidewalk chalk, stick plastic forks in the lawn, and add a little bit of tp to the hedges.  It was amazing how fast everything was put in place, but I guess that is all part of team work!  Well done ladies!

Aside from all the team bonding I've been up to this week, I have just been hanging out with some of the housemates who are also around for the week.  It's so nice when no one has any schoolwork to get done and we are actually all able to spend time together. 

This weekend we have the Davis Shootout at UC Davis and we will be facing 4 teams from our conference.  If you are around you should come cheer us on because we are going to have some good games!  That's about it for now.  Take care!

Kellie

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So Close To Spring Break!
Wednesday, March 21, 2007, 1:06 p.m.

The team before our games on St. Patrick's Day. Gotta love all that green!

With St. Patrick's Day come and gone, I should update you all on our games from the past weekend.  We had two conference games against Sonoma State and Monterey Bay, which brought us two more wins for our record.  Before the first game of the day, a couple of teammates passed out a little gift for the entire team to honor of the holiday--green and white hair ribbons with our number on it.  Unfortunately they can't be worn in the water, but we had fun wearing them around the pool deck until we had to get in.  Thanks girls!  It was also fun to see the whole team with their green flair on because it clashed so nicely with our team colors. 

It was such a perfect day for games as it was sunny and warm with clear blue skies.  Our fans were also out in full force this weekend sporting a mixture of Santa Clara gear and green.  My housemates and friends all came out too and were the superfans of the weekend since they rocked body paint, wore St. Patrick's Day tattoos, and led the cheering section for both games.  I love my fans!  Thanks guys!

Other than a fun St. Patrick's Day (which is among my favorite days of the year if you didn't pick up on that yet), the past weekend was a blast even though it was the weekend before finals.  My house became a temporary hostel with 5 visitors from out of town in addition to the 7 of us that already live here.  It was fun having a bunch of people around, but sadly it was back to reality on Sunday with finals approaching.  I had one final on Monday already and my other two are on Thursday and Friday.  Finals week is never fun, but the end of finals means a full week without classes or homework and I am definitely looking forward to that.  The other perk of finals week during water polo season is that Coach Keith Wilbur tells his story of taking a final exam in college at Princeton.  It consistently moves me to tears from laughter and I look forward to this part of the week above all else.  We have been promised a rendition of it today in chalk talk and I can't wait!

Spring break is almost here, but for the women's water polo team it does not mean going home or vacationing to Hawaii or Mexico.  We get to hang out at school and practice everyday.  While it is disappointing to have to stay here, it is nice to get to just play water polo and hang out without worrying about going to class, doing homework, or studying.  We are well fed by parents who have us over for team dinners and like many of our friends who do travel on break, we end up getting pretty tan from the hours we spend in the pool. 

That is about it for now since I have to get back to studying for my forensic anthropology exam that's tomorrow!  If you are around, we have a game on Friday evening against Princeton.  It's a rematch game for us since we lost to them down in San Diego earlier in the season, and it is our coach's college, meaning that we are really pumped up!  Come check out the game!  Good luck to everyone with finals and anyone who doesn't have tests, be glad!  Take care!

Kellie

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Luck o' the Irish
Wednesday, March 14, 2007, 1:43 p.m.

Kristin Barnes, Claire Linney, and Kellie Dunn out to dinner after the softball game.

Kristin Barnes and Claire Linney bundle up to watch the softball game on Friday evening.

We are now in mid-March, which means that St. Patrick's Day is coming up!  Being Irish, I love this holiday.  Conveniently we also have two home games on Saturday, which is St. Paddy's Day!  We play at 12:30 and 3:00, so wear your Santa Clara gear (but don't forget some green flair or else you might get pinched) and come cheer us on! 

This past weekend we only had one game and it was at Davis.  We didn't win, but we did play a decent game against them.  Hopefully we will get another shot at them at our conference tournament.

There isn't too much to report on as we only had one game.  Coach Keith Wilbur did give us an extra day off this weekend since we are in dead week.  Of course, the team tended to use the time to "study" by the pool and work on tanning.  It was nice though to have that extra time to get stuff done and relax a little bit more than normal.  Right now we are in the middle of dead week, which means that every class is finishing up all the projects and papers that have been building all quarter.  We also get to look forward to final exams starting Monday and ending on Friday, which brings us to the much anticipated spring break! 

This past week has been crazy for me.  My business capstone project and presentation is on Thursday and that is practically all I have been doing lately.  I can't wait until 3:30pm on Thursday when it is over with and I will have my life back!  Last Friday I did get to take a field trip (yes, there are field trips in college) to the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner's Office for my Forensic Anthropology class.  It was really interesting and our class even got to see an actual autopsy.  It was definitely an experience! 

In addition to water polo and classes I have just been enjoying my free time even though I haven't had much of it.  This past weekend I did manage to make it to a couple softball games with my housemates and a couple teammates.  After the games, we went out to dinner with Sara Overmier, from the softball team, because it was her 22nd birthday.   

That is all I have for you now.  I hope everyone has a great rest of the week.  And of course, Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I will leave you with an Irish blessing:

May those who love us love us.
And those that don't love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn't turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we'll know them by their limping.

Cheers!
Kellie

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Slugfest
Wednesday, March 7, 2007, 2:20 p.m.

Mele Rehder - Gold Medal Winner in the 2007 Chubby Bunny Olympics!

Our tournament in Santa Cruz started a little too early for our tastes as a 7:30 am game time in Santa Cruz meant leaving Santa Clara at 5:30 am, but we still managed to beat Colorado State even at such an early hour for all the non-morning people on our team.  Our next game wasn't until around 4pm that afternoon, so we had a lot of time to kill between games.  I bet many of you are wondering what the water polo team does with so much time between games.  Many of the teammates could be found napping in the upper room of the UCSC pool and it looked like a bunch of bodies as people were sprawled out on the floor in their black Santa Clara Water Polo bathrobes facedown with hoods on and heads resting on towels.  Other teammates watched parts of other games from the balcony and did homework. 

Senior Mele Rehder, however, entertained herself by competing with people in a Chubby Bunny contest.  For those of you who don't know, Chubby Bunny is a game where you try to fit as many pieces of food, normally marshmallows, into your mouth as possible.  The winner is the one who can hold the most.  As we didn't have marshmallows, the competition involved grapes that were brought by parents as part of our lunch.  Mele, by no surprise to those who know her, won the contest.  Good work Mele!  We are all so proud to know you!
 
Aside from entertaining ourselves through the many hours between our games, we did win our second game on Saturday against San Bernadino.  Sunday we were lucky enough to have a later starting game against Cal State East Bay where we were able to pick up our third win of the weekend.  The last game of the tournament for us was against one of our biggest rivals, UC Davis.  We played a tough game against them, but we ended up losing by 2 goals.  Lucky for us we have 1 upcoming game this weekend and it is our rematch against Davis at their home pool.  Practices this week are really geared with them in mind and since it is our only game this weekend, we are really able to focus on it.  If you can, come out to Davis and cheer us on at noon.  We love having fans and it's a big conference game, so show up!

Other than water polo, life has been crazy!  As it is the 9th week of the quarter, classes have gotten really busy with tons of projects and work.  I have had so many group meetings lately with my business capstone group and we present our final project in about a week, so that has been taking up a lot of my time.  I also finally got the team bug that has been going around.  When you spend so much time with a group of people, you end up sharing everything, even colds.  I guess it is surprising I didn't get sick sooner like a lot of the girls, but I am feeling better and getting really excited for this weekend! 

I guess that is about all for now!  The sun is shining and it's about time for practice!  Who wouldn't want to go play water polo right now?  If you're here, enjoy the sunny weather, and if you're not, be happy for us that it isn't raining!  Have a great week!

Kellie

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The Thunder Rolls...
Wednesday, February 28, 2007, 2:03 p.m.

The team on the Lamb's boat after cruising around the canals.

Andrea Evans, Meg Zimmerman, Amy Lamb, and Kellie Dunn waiting for food after 2 overtime game wins on Sunday.

As you probably already know, the women's water polo team was down in Southern California all last weekend for a tournament at UC Irvine with many of the top teams in the country.  Our first two games on Saturday were rough since we played and lost to UCLA (who happened to be ranked #1) and San Diego State (who is also in the top ten) even though we did play pretty well.  Sunday, however, was a different story.  We played our first game of the day against conference rival UC San Diego and won in overtime.  The second game of the day was against Long Beach State, and we again won in overtime.  It was so much better to end the tournament on two great wins and the entire return trip everyone was in high spirits, and even Coach Keith Wilbur was goofing around.
 
The team chose to celebrate our wins by going to In'n'Out in LA before catching our flight home.  Even a delayed flight out didn't dampen spirits and the airplane flight attendant made an announcement that Coach Keith Wilbur would be hosting a bbq in celebration and that everyone on the flight was invited. 

Along with a busy schedule of games, the team was able to have a little fun too.  We had dinner in Long Beach at the home of Amy Lamb and Allie Lamb.  I didn't know there was a Little Italy in Long Beach, but that's where they live!  There are even gondolas that pass by in the canal right outside of their house.  We had an amazing dinner and it was nice to be able to just relax and hang out somewhere other than the hotel.  The highlight of the evening, however, was when the twins' younger brother took the entire team out on a boat ride in the canal.  It took some convincing to get Kendra Betke to join in the fun, but she faced her fear of sharks to be with the team. 

One of the things about water polo season is there really are no breaks because we always have competition coming up.  Yesterday at practice, however, we caught a small break.  To set the scene, it was pouring rain outside, which makes the pool seem even colder.  Unlike other sports, we don't get to move inside when it rains, so we just power through our practice.  We had been in the pool with the pouring rain for about an hour when all of a sudden there was a bright flash of light just over the wall of the pool.  Then twenty girls all pointed to the corner where the light was and yelled "LIGHTNING!  COACH!  LIGHTNING!"  Then there was a loud clap of thunder and the yelling turned into girly shrieking and everyone climbed out of the pool as fast as they could.  Since nearly everyone on the team is a lifeguard, we all knew you have to get out of the water and we ran inside the gym.  After a few minutes our coach came in and said that we could have the rest of practice off.  This was a very welcome and lucky break for us because we never get out of practice for weather, and even with lightning we usually just wait it out. 

With that said, there isn't too much else to report in on.  This quarter has been flying by and I can't believe we are already done with February!  We have the Slugfest tournament this weekend.  It is much closer to home, so if you are around be sure to come to Santa Cruz on Saturday, Sunday, or both days to catch some of the action!  Hope to see you there!

Kellie

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Sweet Revenge
Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 12:58 p.m.

Friday night was our first home game of the season and it was also the first of our rematch games against a team we lost to down in San Diego.  After training all week with Northridge on our minds, we beat them by two goals on Friday night!  It was a great game under the lights and it was awesome to have so many fans out for the game too.  If you missed the game on Friday, we will be down at UC Irvine for a tournament this weekend, so if you are around come cheer us on! 

Practices this week have been geared toward our upcoming tournament and there isn't too much to tell with the exception of a quick little story involving Keely Baldwin and Mele Rehder.  They were discussing what water polo would be like in a 50 meter pool and how exhausting it would be.  They came to the realization that the shot clocks would have to be longer.  Keely explained, "They would have to be 60 seconds instead of 35."  Mele responded exclaiming, "THEY'D HAVE TO BE LIKE A MINUTE!"  It is just little things like this that keep us entertained during our practices. 

In addition to the excitement of our first home game, this past weekend was busy because it was Parents' Weekend.  My housemates and I decided that all our parents should come for the weekend because we wanted them to all meet and go to the Senior/Parent Dinner Dance.  My mom came down for the weekend and was able to catch our game Friday night.  Even my housemates came and brought all their parents to the game, and it was most of their first time ever watching the sport!  My mom and I had a fun weekend watching sports and hanging out with my housemates and their parents, but the highlight of the weekend was definitely the dinner dance.  It was fun getting all dressed up, having a nice dinner, and then dancing with all my friends and their parents all night.  It's definitely something you don't get to do everyday!

The day off of school Monday was a nice break from classes and this week is flying by since there are only 4 days of classes.  That's really all there is as far as updates go for this week!  We leave on Friday for Irvine and our first game is against #1 ranked UCLA.  It's always exciting to get a shot at the top team, so wish us luck!  That's all for now!  Enjoy the rest of your week!

Kellie

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Be Mine
Wednesday, February 14, 2007, 12:03 p.m.

The team on our first plane ride of the season. Christie Miller, Brianna Anderson and Jenny Knutson are smiling in the front while Randahl Capurro, Allie Lamb and Liz Perry make goofy faces in the back row.

Or the whole team's Valentine!  Happy Valentine's Day to all our fans!  After a somewhat rough weekend of games in San Diego, the team could use some of that Valentine's Day love.  We played four games this weekend, but only managed to finish one of them out with a win against Bucknell.  Fortunately for us the season is young and we have our first rematch coming up at home on Friday against Northridge.  We would love to have as much fan support out there as possible, so come cheer us on for our first home game of the season.  It is also the first game under the new pool lights and it will be just like Friday Night Lights . . . only with water polo! 

Other than a few disappointing games, our first road trip to San Diego was a blast!  It's always an adventure to travel with the team.  One of the highlights of the weekend was our dinner Saturday evening.  The team went to BJ's and after two games you can imagine how hungry everyone was.  It took forever to get seated and then almost as long for our food to arrive.  When it finally came, everyone got their food except Katie Radvanyi.  She was informed that the restaurant had dropped her stuffed baked potato and it had been the last one.  The manager then proceeded to announce to her that she could have anything else she wanted for free.  Then she added "And since everything took so long, the table can have free dessert.  As many as you want."  These were the famous last words for that restaurant as everyone took this quite literally and had their own pazookie (which is a huge soft cookie with ice cream on top). 

Claire Linney and Amy Lamb wanted to contribute something this week to commemorate the San Diego trip, so here is . . .

Claire and Amy's top ten favorite things from San Diego!!!

Other than water polo, there isn't too much else to report.  This week is relatively calm as far as classes go compared to last week with the exception of a midterm on Friday.  Monday night was an exciting night at our house because my housemates and I spent it watching the men's basketball game.  We were definitely on edge the whole game, but there was screaming and a dance party after they beat Gonzaga.  Congrats to men's basketball!  Well that is all for this week!  We hope to see you on Friday night at our game!  Enjoy your conversation hearts, chocolates, and Valentines!

Kellie

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Santa Cruizin'
Wednesday, February 7, 2007, 2:45 p.m.

My amazing housemates (Shannon Bell, Julie Gabelein, and Sarah Scott) raided my closet for water polo gear and then made the trek up Highway 17 to come cheer me on in Santa Cruz this weekend! I love my superfans!

This past weekend we played against Santa Cruz and Sonoma State at UC Santa Cruz. The sun was out all day, which was perfect for some water polo games! We played Santa Cruz first and had enough time in between games to scarf down some bagels and snacks (thanks again to the parents!) before getting back in the pool to play Sonoma. We ended up winning both of our games, and are now looking forward to our first real road trip this weekend to San Diego. We will be playing in the UCSD tournament and our first game is a big one against Santa Barbara. The rest of our games depend on how we do, so come cheer us on if you are in the area!

Along with the excitement of two wins on Saturday, this past weekend was a lot of fun. My dad came down for a couple days to see the games and hang out. He took my housemates and me out to dinner at Buca di Beppo on Friday night and we had a big "family style" Italian meal. We had a lot of fun eating massive amounts of food and telling stories. The highlight of everyone's evening was when my cross country runner housemate Blossom Marimpietri recounted her first triathlon experience in which she forgot her helmet and had to borrow an aerodynamic one from a stranger. She proceeded to do the entire bike ride with it on backwards, meaning that the point was going forward like a unicorn instead of backwards like it should be. Silly runner!

Saturday night we also made a quick run to In'n'Out before my dad caught his flight back to Portland because In'n'Out is the highlight of a California trip if you are from out of state! Sunday afternoon was spent watching the Super Bowl game with my housemates. I know some of my teammates from Chicago are still grieving the loss, but I think they will get over it and move on with their lives as they can now look forward to baseball season.

Other than that there isn't much more to report on! Life is moving along quickly with projects and homework piling up. I have a big presentation on Thursday that I will be so happy to have over with, and once that is done I will be able to really enjoy our trip to San Diego without too much stress about schoolwork. It's about time for practice, so that's all for now! Go Broncos!

Kellie

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And so it begins...
Wednesday, January 31, 2007, 1:26 p.m.

This is the team and our die hard fans after our victory over Hartwick. Liz managed to bring in fans from as far as Chicago and Australia who braved the cool ocean breeze by spelling out SCU on their chests with body paint! (Thanks Mrs. Betke for contributing the photo!)

Hello again!  In case you haven't already heard, we had an awesome opening weekend!  After losing to San Jose State on Saturday, we bounced back on Sunday to beat Monterey Bay and #12th ranked Hartwick!  The games at Monterey were fun and the parents made sure we were well fed with bagels for lunch and cupcakes for Liz Perry's birthday after our second game.

We used the team vans to get to and from Monterey, which meant we all split up into different cars.  I don't know about the other cars, but the drive home after the big win was definitely a noteworthy part of the weekend's games.  Emily Bonk drove the team minivan with soccer mom-like precision, but it was a team effort to get her to merge onto those tricky freeways.  Keely Baldwin kept our spirits up with her awesome DJ skills and we rocked the van all the way back to Santa Clara. 

Aside from water polo, this week has been crazy so far.  The quarter system makes the terms fly, but the work piles up all too quickly.  This week has already included 3 quizzes and I still have a big midterm coming up on Friday.  Luckily tonight I have a small break from studying and get to watch a film for my geography class with Kendra Betke at Liz's house. 

Even with a busy schedule, life is good and I have no real complaints!  I'm looking forward to the weekend when I will have some of the work behind me and 2 games on Saturday in Santa Cruz.  Games this weekend are at 9am and noon, so come show us some love!

Kellie

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Hey Everyone!
Thursday, January 25, 2007, 11:34 a.m.

Hey everyone! I guess I should start off by introducing myself . . . I'm Kellie Dunn and I am a senior on the women's water polo team. I'm studying English and also getting a minor in International Business and Spanish, so needless to say between classes and water polo, I'm pretty busy. Now that it's the third week of the quarter, I feel like I am finally in the swing of things with my new classes and practice schedule, and I am so ready to start games!

After missing almost all of last year because of a knee problem I am really looking forward to this season! It's so much more fun to play than be injured! Getting back to school after a much needed winter break has been a lot of fun. It's great to have the whole team together for the first time this year since we had Kendra, Liz, and Christie studying abroad in the fall.

After a long month of daily swim sets alone at home and three intense weeks of practices back at school we finally get to play some real water polo! We get to kick off our season against our nearby rival San Jose State on Saturday and on Sunday we head to Monterey Bay to play CSMB and Hartwick! We are looking forward to real competition, so stay tuned and I'll let you know how our first weekend goes . . . or better yet, come cheer us on and find out for yourself!

In other news, we have two birthdays on our team this week. Kirstin Olson had her birthday at practice on Tuesday and Liz is turning 21 on Sunday, so we are going to celebrate those by getting some wins under our belts this weekend! Happy birthday girls!

That is all for now! Have a great weekend! Go Broncos!

Kellie

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