The Varsity Blues women's water polo team leaves Wednesday, February 13 to play 13 games in 10 days during a competition tour of Southern California.  It is the third consecutive year the team has used the February Reading Week to seek top-level competition in the hotbed of women's water polo.
 
This year's schedule is the toughest yet both in terms of quality of teams and in the number of games being played.  The Blues will play six schools ranked in the Top 30 in Division 1, two Division 2 schools and five of the top six ranked Division 3 schools.
 
"Since the team is very young with seven freshmen and only two seniors, we wanted to give the players as many opportunities to play games as possible," stated head coach George Gross, Jr. "While the large number of games will be taxing physically, it gives the players experiences that will carry forward into next year as the learning curve of playing together is accelerated."
 
The physical demands on the Blues players will be exacerbated by the absence of three starters including power forward captain Megan MacCormac (Ottawa), junior center forward Kassie Fraser (Vancouver) and junior utility Emily Kelvin-Davies (Fraser Valley, B.C.) all out with injury.
 
The Blues get right into the game schedule with a match at No. 22 San Diego State on Thursday afternoon.  The next afternoon the team travels to Riverside to take on No. 23 Cal Baptist.  A pair of doubleheaders fills the weekend.  On Saturday, the Blues visit No. 25 Azusa Pacific and then move on to Chapman (No. 5, Division 3).  Sunday sees the Blues at Redlands for two games – one against No. 27 Cal State East Bay and one versus Redlands (No. 6, Division 3).
 
Monday provides the lone day off for rest.  On Tuesday, another doubleheader will see the Blues travel to Cal Lutheran to take on No. 21 Cal State Northridge and then Cal Lutheran (No. 2, Division 3).
 
The next day is a trip inland to Clairmont-Mudd-Scripps (No. 3, Division 3).  Thursday's game at Pomona (No. 1, Division 3) completes the swing through the top three Division 3 schools.  Friday February 22 the Blues face Division 2 opponent Concordia.  The tour winds up with another doubleheader at Cal Lutheran as part of the Tina Finali tournament.  The early match pits the Blues against another Division 2 opponent in Fresno Pacific.  The tour ends with an afternoon match against No. 15 Fresno State.

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