Dartmouth women’s water polo crushes at weekend tournament

The Dartmouth women’s club water polo team trekked to Boston University for its second New England Division Collegiate Club tournament of the term this weekend.

While the team members came out on top, they didn’t come back to campus unscathed — the group suffered several injuries and player Haley Carstensen ’12 took a punch to the eye during the game.

This was the team’s second tournament of the season. The Big Green won the four games against Boston University, Williams, Yale and the Coast Guard water polo teams, leaving Dartmouth seeded at second behind Boston College.

“We did great, we crushed,” co-captain Aoife Duffy ’11 said.

Ali Titiz GR ’12, who coaches the women’s club team, was so proud of their performance this weekend that he went to a Turkish pastry shop to get the players celebratory baklava, Duffy said.

The team didn’t have the chance to play Boston College, which co-captains Duffy and Devon Zimmerling ’11 described as Dartmouth’s biggest competition in the league.

“When we played them at our tournament over the winter we lost, but we didn’t have two of our starters and were not in great shape,” Duffy said.

The players are looking strong after their spring training trip in San Diago, the co-captains said.

“This year more than any other year that I’ve played the difference between the way we played as a team before training trip and after training trip is the most marked that it’s been for me,” Duffy said.

Zimmerling scored two goals over the course of the tournament despite her relatively recent return to the pool after suffering from a broken ankle. Goalie Shelley Wenzel ’14 stood out during the games, saving 80 percent of shots on goal.

“She blocked every single penalty shot, which is really hard as a goalie in water polo because you have to get up from treading water to cover this huge space,” Duffy said.

Next weekend the team will be traveling to the New England regional championships at Williams that will determine which team moves on to nationals at Notre Dame.