San Diego, Calif. - If it's summer, then it's time to get into the water and for one current and three former Aztec water polo players, July and August are very busy this year. The four are competing at the FINA World Championships, Pan Am Games and the FINA Master's World Championship this summer.
"With the excitement of the World Championships and Olympic qualifications, and in the next few weeks the Pan Am Games and FINA Master's World Championships, this has been a great summer," Aztecs' women's water polo head coach Carin Crawford said. "It's an exciting time for our sport because we get to be on a world stage, and to have players from our program represented is a great testament to them as both athletes and as individuals."
18th FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (Gwandju, Korea)
Tayla Walsh (2016) represented her home country of Australia in the inaugural competition of beach water polo at the recently completed 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwandju, Korea. Walsh and the Australians won the bronze medal game with a 20-16 victory over host China.
"It was amazing to be part of the first ever beach water polo championships," Walsh said after the competition, "and to come away with the bronze was beyond our expectations as we were up against some tough teams. I couldn't be prouder of my teammates and I'm so thankful for the great experience I had representing Australia."
Beach water polo is a more compact, free-flowing style, with smaller goals, a shorter and narrower pitch (15 meters by 10 meters) and without the single referee breathing down the competitors' necks. The game is fast, just three field players and a goalkeeper, compared to six field players in traditional water polo. The possession time is 20 seconds and there are two halves of 10 minutes, as opposed to four eight-minutes quarters.
The Australian team was 0-2-1 in round robin play falling to Spain in its opening game and 16-6 to the United States in its second match. Against China, in the third match, Australia took a 14-13 lead with seconds to play, but conceded a goal as the time expired to finish in a 14-14 tie. The Aussies then came back and defeated China for the bronze.
"It's a really exciting format and it makes sense," Crawford said. "Other sports have developed an alternate version of their sport, such as volleyball and beach volleyball, which have taken off. (Beach water polo) will give more athletes the opportunity to continue playing and we have a unique opportunity in San Diego to contest some games in the bay or on the beach. Both myself and many other coaches have used smaller format water polo, like beach water polo, in our pools as a training tool because it is so fast paced, there is no rest, and no chance to 'take a possession off.' So, I'm excited to see the growth of the game and eager to see how we can get more of our athletes involved."
In August, three more Aztecs will be competing on the international water polo stage.
18th PAN AMERICAN GAMES (Lima, Peru)
Current defender and junior-to-be Lucia Carballo is a member of the Mexican National Team and will compete for her country in the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru. The water polo competition begins with pool play on August 4 and runs until August 10.
Mexico is in Group B and will face the host country Peru in its first game on August 4 and then face Cuba and Canada in the next two days. A champion will be crowned on August 10. The top team in the tournament, not already qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics, will qualify after the Lima games.
Live streaming of the water polo event will be available at this link.
18th FINA MASTER'S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (Gwandju, Korea)
The water polo world's eyes will not only be on Lima in early August, but also back in Gwandju for the FINA Water Polo Master's World Championship.
Aztecs Stacey Werner (2004-07) and Sandy Onweller (2003-04), now Sandy Dielman, will compete in the FINA Master's World Championship for the second time, having participated in the same competition in Budapest, Hungry in 2017. The pair are members of the San Diego Shores and will begin competition in Gwandju on August 5.
Over two seasons on The Mesa, Dielman tallied 80 goals, 45 assists and 45 steals in 66 games. In her senior year, the best of her career, she had a team-high-tying 57 goals, 31 assists (second most on the team), and 36 steals en route to 2004 Honorable Mention All-America recognition. The Poway native returned to SDSU for the 2014 season as a volunteer assistant coach and in 2018, with her team the Darkside, earned All-American designation at that year's USA Master's National Championships.
Werner, a native of Lodi, Calif., was a freshman on the 2004 team that was co-captained by Dielman. In her four seasons, Werner helped the Aztecs to three top-7 finishes (four top-11 finishes overall), including a top-5 effort in 2007, when SDSU qualified for its first NCAA Championship. That year ended with a fourth-place performance at NCAAs and a second-team All-America honor for Werner. For her career, Werner totaled 148 goals, 113 assists and 249 steals in 122 games. Her 249 steals still rank fourth all-time at SDSU, while her 113 assists are the ninth-most in program history.
"I'm so happy for Stacy and Sandy that they can compete on the master's level," Crawford said. "It is such a joy to watch our players continue their water polo careers beyond their college experience."
In a six-team round-robin competition, each team will play once a day from August 5 to August 9. The semifinals will be played on August 10, with the championship and bronze medal games contested on August 11.
Fans can follow all the action from the water polo competition through FINA's fee-based streaming service by clicking on this link.