FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Fresno Pacific traveled a long way for the Colorado State water polo tournament, but it was worth every mile with the elite level of experience they received against Colorado State, No. 5 Cal Berkeley and Santa Cruz.  The Sunbirds fell 0-5 on the weekend, 7-18 against Colorado State, 8-22 against Berkeley, 12-20 to Santa Cruz, 4-23 to Berkeley again, and 12-14 to Santa Cruz in their closest game of the tournament.

The Sunbirds may have seemed outmatched compared to a DIII team and two DI teams, one of which ranked number five in the nation, but the Sunbirds held their own.  According to Coach Brian Suhovy, “The girls gained a lot of experience and confidence through the weekend, where in our second match against Cal [Berkeley] the girls really played aggressive with confidence.”

Yulia Blinovskya led the Sunbirds with 17 goals on the weekend scoring in every game, with five goals in each of the Santa Cruz games.  Freshmen goalie Katie Cole had 34 saves on the weekend, with 10 saves on Colorado State and Santa Cruz.

Coach Suhovy commented, “Early in the weekend you could tell the long drive and the altitude really got to the girls.  The altitude was probably the biggest adjustment, but by the end of the weekend the were really playing well.”

The final game of the weekend was against Santa Cruz in their third game of the day and fifth on the weekend.  The Sunbirds trailed 5-10 at halftime, and were down by eight with five minutes remaining in the third quarter before they got on their roll.  The Sunbirds scored four in the remaining third quarter, and broke out in the fourth with three more goals to get within one goal with three minutes to go in the game.  Santa Cruz scored once more before the final score of 12-14.  Katelyn Ball and Jen Wolter scored two goals apiece, while Melissa Perry, Deborah Wall and Borbala Toth each put in one goal apiece to keep the Sunbirds in the game.  Toth finished the weekend with seven goals.

Katie Michael took the cage in the first quarter to relieve Cole, and got two saves in her first game as goalie.

Brittany Guerrero, Marissa Nunez and Ball each had four goals on the weekend, while Jenny Diebert and Perry scored two each for the tournament.