Water Polo Hosts Final Home Tournament of 2022
TEMPE, Ariz. – Sun Devil Water Polo returns home this weekend to host the second ASU Invitational of the season with Azusa Pacific, Harvard, and Marist in town. They will play Azusa Pacific on Friday, March 11 at 10:30 am MST and Harvard and Marist on Saturday, March 12 at 8:00 am MST and 1:15 pm MST, respectively. All three games will be streamed via the Arizona State Live Stream.
Arizona State comes off of a 1-1 weekend with a weekend split in California after an 11-10 win over No. 12 San José State Spartans and a loss to No. 1 Stanford. ASU remained at No. 10 in the CWPA polls this week, and is the highest ranked team in the tournament this weekend.
Freshman attacker Vanda Baksa's 80 points (51G-29A) is two points away from tying the program's freshman season points record, which is currently held by three time Olympian, Rowie Webster, whose 82 points (63G-19A) set the record back in 2006.
Baksa's 80 points are also second in the NCAA behind Villanova's Kaysie Stuba's 86. Vanda sits at top five in the NCAA in goals, points, steals and field blocks– and is eighth in the NCAA in steals.
Azusa Pacific is an even .500 on the season at 5-5 and comes off of a 2-2 weekend at the Claremont Conference Challenge. All-time the Sun Devils own a 4-0 record against the Cougars, and have averaged 16 goals in each meeting. ASU most recently saw APU in town in 2020 with a 12-6 win in Tempe.
Harvard checked in at No. 22 on the CWPA rankings, and will compete in Tempe after posting a 2-2 record at their own Harvard Invitational last week. They improved to 14-3 on the season and have a 4-0 record on the road. ASU has faced the Crimson just once in program history with the sole 7-8 win coming in 2013 in Brown's tournament in Rhode Island.
Marist sits at 11-7 on the season and is No. 25 in the weeks' CWPA rankings after going 2-0 at the Harvard Invitational last weekend. The Red Foxes have faced the Sun Devils six times, and are winless against the team in the maroon and gold– with their most recent loss coming in 2019 when they last visited Tempe. The Sun Devils have averaged 13 goals per game in their six wins over Marist.
Live stat links and stream links will be posted on @SunDevilWP on Twitter prior to each game.