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Holiday Cup ready for big splash

by Rick Eymer

Some of the greatest aquatic athletes in the world will gather this week at Stanford University's Avery Aquatic Center for the Holiday Cup.

The Holiday Cup, a women's water polo tournament, is the first international event of this magnitude to arrive in the Bay Area. It's the largest annual domestic tournament.

The United States, which includes Stanford players Ellen Estes, Brenda Villa and Margie Dingeldein, plays Canada on Thursday at 8 p.m. That match will be preceded by a contest between Japan and Brazil at 7 p.m.

Canada and the U.S. have developed quite a rivalry. Canada beat Team USA at last year's World Championships and features a new coach in Wouly de Bie. Cora Campbell anchors the Canadian offense.

"It seems like the U.S. players are excited about the match-up with Canada," said Stanford coach John Tanner, also an assistant coach for the national team. "We haven't beaten them in a major tournament for quite some time."

Canada also beat the U.S. in 1999 in the World Cup championships to gain the early Olympics bid. The teams tied in the Olympics.

"We're going to have to beat them next year to get the early bid," said Tanner. "This is the last chance before then to get the top teams together."

The tournament continues with matches on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. and on Sunday at 6 p.m. (third place) and 7 p.m. (championship).

"This is our first tournament since we started training together two weeks ago," said Villa. "We made some changes to our system, so it will be interesting to play and see how we've improved."

Team USA has kept busy since school let out, with trips to Russia and Chicago. Since then the team has worked on a new counter attack which will be unveiled for the first time this weekend.

"We tried to improve on good habits," said Villa. "This will give us a good evaluation of what we've learned."

"Among the water polo community, this is a big deal," said Tanner. "There's not a lot of opportunity to see the U.S. team. I think we're going to have decent crowds."

There's a heavy Pac-10 influence on the team, with all but two players coming from the conference.

In addition to the three Stanford players, six more come from UCLA. California and USC are also represented.

Stanford and UCLA have played each other for the NCAA title the past two years. Each school owns a national championship.

Robin Beauregard, Thalia Munro, Nicolle Payne, Coralie Simmons, Amber Stachowski and Catherine von Schwarz are all current or former Bruins.

Heather Petri just graduated from Cal, while Ericka Lorenz is a junior. Bernice Orwig is a USC grad.

Gabrielle Domanic is a senior at Foothill High School in Santa Ana and team captain Heather Moody just graduated from San Diego State.

Brazil is the third-ranked team in the Americas and features offensive threat Camila Pedrosa and goalkeeper Claudia Graner.

Japan finished11th in the world last year and features team captain Ako Hagiwara. The Japanese are coached by Misaki Miyazaki.

The Holiday Cup is in its fifth year, with Australia winning the first two titled and Team USA entering play as two-time defending champions.

Australia finished third at the USA Cup in Chicago two weeks ago.

Team USA and Canada played an exhibition on Tuesday in Roseville.

The United States doesn't get much of a chance to rest. On Monday morning (July 8), the team takes off for an eight-team tournament in Italy. After training on Tuesday, the tournament begins Wednesday.

The U.S. 'B' team dropped a 10-4 decision to Holland on the final day of the Dutch Trophy Tournament in Oosterhout, Holland on Sunday.

Team USA finished third in the tournament, which was won by The Netherlands.

Menlo-Atherton High grad Fana Fuqua had five saves for the United States, while Natalie Golda scored two goals.

"This was a great experience for our younger players," said coach Guy Baker. "We played great teams in front of great crowds and I think we benefited greatly from playing in this tournament."

Stanford players Anne-Marie Keenan, a Menlo School grad, Jackie Frank and Kate Pettit also participated.

The U.S. men's national team lost to Croatia, 10-9, in a FINA World League contest on Sunday at the USA Water Polo National Aquatic Complex in Los Alamitos.

Stanford sophomore Tony Azevedo scored three goals for the Americans, while Stanford grad Wolf Wigo added one.

"We missed a lot of opportunities," said Azevedo. "We missed some shots and they played good defense."

Team USA led 5-1 after the first period.

"Games like this are actually good for us," said USA coach Ratko Rudic. "They have to deal with this type of play, with the referees, and with the pressure. This was an educational result."

E-mail Rick Eymer at reymer@paweekly.com