WWP Preview: The 2025 Women's Water Polo Season Opens up in Tempe, Arizona
1/15/2025 3:32:00 PM | Women's Water Polo
RIVERSIDE--- The 2025 California Baptist University women's water polo season will open on Saturday, January 18, at the ASU Tournament in Tempe, Arizona.
The Lancers open up the season ranked #25 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association rankings after they returned most of their key contributors from a season ago. The season opener will be against #15 UC Davis at the ASU Invite and will be one of three ranked matchups over the weekend for CBU. Like last season, CBU's non-conference schedule is full of exciting matchups against op-tier talent, with teams like #3 USC, #20 Harvard, and #18 San Jose State on the docket for 2025.
As has been tradition, the Lancers will open up its home schedule at The Joust tournament, hosted at the Lancers Aquatics Center. CBU will host 12 games in two days, beginning on January 24, and will compete in four games during the tournament, starting with a matchup against the #3 USC Trojans. The Lancers will also compete against #18 San Jose State, La Verne College, and Redlands College during the tournament. CBU will compete in two other tournaments during non-conference play, including the Triton Invitational in La Jolla, CA, and the Harvard Invite in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Conference play will begin on Friday, February 14, for the Lancers as they travel down south to face the San Diego State Aztecs. The first home match of Golden Coast Conference play will be against Pacific on March 8 and will be one of three home conference games for CBU this season. One of the more high-profile home conference games will be on Saturday, March 15, when they host the reigning GCC Champions Fresno State, for a 1 PM game in Riverside. The GCC Tournament will be hosted by LMU this season and will run from April 25-27 in Los Angeles, CA.
Last season, CBU finished 11-19 and 3-4 in conference play, finishing fifth in the GCC standings. Head Coach Julie Snodgrass is entering her third season at the helm of the team and is returning the majority of her starters and major contributors from last season. Among them will be Second Team All-GCC member Emaly Hutton, who led the team with 52 goals and total points with 80. Other returners include Celeste Almendariz, Kyra Kahahawai, Cayleigh Carter, Tyanna Schneider, and Delilah Moreno, who were among the leaders in the majority of the statistical categories. In the GCC Coach's preseason poll, the Lancers were picked to finish 6th in the conference, just behind Azusa Pacific and ahead of Santa Clara and Concordia Irvine.
