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Triton Invitational
Tournament Central
Canyonview Aquatics Center – La Jolla, Calif.
Saturday, Feb. 9 and Sunday, Feb. 10

Saturday, Feb. 9
No. 6 UC Irvine Anteaters (3-1) vs. RV Cal State East Bay (2-0)
10:40 AM – Triton Pool – La Jolla, Calif.

No. 6 UC Irvine Anteaters (3-1) vs.  UC Santa Barbara /UC San Diego
5:20 PM or 4:00 PM – Triton Pool – La Jolla, Calif.
 
Sunday, Feb. 10
No. 6 UC Irvine vs. TBA
 
No. 6 UC Irvine vs. TBA

A Look at the Triton Invite Field

• UC Irvine will meet Cal State East Bay for the third time in program history. The Anteaters are 2-0 against the Pioneers in all-time meetings
• The two teams last met in 2017 as UCI won a 23-4 decision
• UCI finished last year's Triton Invite with a 2-2 record, winning games against Santa Clara (16-3) and CSUN (19-6), while falling to Arizona State (8-7) and USC (7-5)
• The Anteaters are 14-6 over the last five years at the Invitational, appearing in the championship game four times in that stretch
• UCI and USC have met three out of the last five years at the Triton Invite as the Anteaters have never won a matchup against the Trojans
• The event features 16 teams, with 13 currently ranked in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Top 25. Highlighting the field is defending national champion and No. 1-ranked USC
•  In addition to No. 6 UC Irvine and No. 1 USC, the following teams will also be in action this weekend: No. 3 UCLA, No. 6 UC Irvine, No. 7 UC Santa Barbara, No. 8 Michigan, No. 9 Arizona State, No. 11 UC Davis, No. 13 Loyola Marymount, No. 16 Long Beach State, No. 20 UC San Diego, No. 21 CSUN, No. 22 San Diego State, No. 25 Marist, No. RV Cal State East Bay, Pomona-Pitzer and Santa Clara

More on the Pioneers

• CS East Bay is 2-0 on the season with wins over Fresno Pacific (12-11 OT) and Santa Clara (12-11)
• Auriel Bill and Adrien Van Dyke lead the Pioneers with five goals each while Bill has six assists and four drawn exclusions
• In goal, Makenna Nation has a team-best 13 saves for a .542 save percentage

Team Notes

• Tara Prentice finished the CBU Invite with 7 goals, scoring hat tricks against CBU (three goals) and Azusa Pacific (four goals). Prentice leads the Anteaters with 11 goals
• Mary Brooks is right behind with 10 goals scored this season She posted a season-high five against Azusa Pacific
• Alyssa Schulte played in goal for the first time in her career against Cal Baptist. She also played a half in the cage against Azusa Pacific. She has five saves this season
• Morgan Jones leads the 'Eaters with 21 saves and 64 minutes in goal
• The 'Eaters opened the season tied for sixth in the nation alongside Hawai'i, the sixth time in the last eight seasons opening at No. 6. UCI broke free of its tie as the sixth-ranked program now clearly ahead of No. 7 Hawai'i
• The Anteaters fell to No. 3 UCLA, 10-6, to start 2019 moving its record to 13-6 all-time in season openers

Tournament Round-Up

• UCI finished the CBU Mini Invite with a 2-0 record, earning wins over CBU, 17-6, and Azusa Pacific, 16-6
• Against CBU, Toni Shackelford, Piper Smith and Tara Prentice finished with hat tricks, tallying three goals apiece
• Mary Brooks led all scorers against Azusa Pacific with five goals while Prentice notched four

Record Pursuit

• Mary Brooks returned to the fold in 2019 with 167 career goals scored, eighth-most in program history. She stands 57 goals away from the top spot held by Jessy Cardey with 224. Brooks would reach the mark with a pace of nearly 2.5 goals per match
• Brooks is one goal away from matching Hannah Croghan's career mark of 165 career goals which is seventh-most in program history
• Jenna Phreaner enters her senior season with 388 saves, fourth all-time among Anteater keepers. With 12 saves, she will become the fourth 'Eater goalie with 400 career saves
• The program enters its 19th season with a total of 326 wins. UCI could reach 350 wins with a 24-win season in 2019, something the team has accomplished twice (2012, 2014)
• UC Irvine women's water polo entered the 2019 season with 4,776 goals in program history standing 224 goals away from 5,000. The 'Eaters have scored 224 goals in a season in 14 of 18 seasons including each season since coach Klatt took over as head coach
• Head Coach Dan Klatt enters his 15th season as head coach of UC Irvine posting 277 wins. He will reach 300 career head coaching wins with a 23-win season in 2019, something his squads have accomplished five times (2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2017)

Fall Roundup
Head Coach Dan Klatt - "We set up our Fall as best as we can. We hosted two Fall invitationals and those allow us to get more people looks. China is physical, they're professional players so its a great advantage for us."

The Anteaters grew even more in their fall tournaments which each included the Chinese National Team as well as their international exemption match last weekend.

Senior Statement
The 2019 season is the return of Mary Brooks who utilized her red-shirt season in 2018. Brooks' scoring presence where she's scored over 50 goals in each of her last competitive seasons was missed last season as the 'Eaters' depth-laden roster produced a high scorer of 41 goals.

Coach Klatt has his eye on more than just her athletic abilities. "Team comradery is very strong, they look out for each other in both ways - picking players up in rough times and keeping everyone grounded. I equate a lot of that to Mary's senior leadership. She's a fifth-year, but has had a consistent work ethic all the way through and everyone here has gotten a chance to see that and its well-respected both her work ethic and what she has to say."

Brooks brings two Big West Player of the Year awards, a Freshman of the Year award, and a conference tournament record number of goals from the 2017 competition which included a six-goal game making her the only player in program history with two such games. Brooks is also within shouting distance of the program's career scoring record standing 67 goals away from the current leader, Jessy Cardey, one goal higher than her season-high she set in 2017.

Riding the Wave
Surrounding Brooks is a roster full of depth, talent, and, despite just three seniors, a healthy amount of experience.

"Last years' experience provided was valuable for everyone. Newcomers got to see what postseason play was like, the intensity of a conference tournament or NCAA matches."

That postseason experience led to an underdog victory at the Big West Tournament and into a pressure-packed NCAA Tournament appearance led by Tara Prentice's 41 goals in her sophomore season. Big West Freshman of the Year Isabel Rack is also trending up after scoring 25 goals, and a class of sophomores along with her that combined for 53 goals in their first Anteater seasons.

The incoming class of freshmen is not as large as it was a year ago, but the impact in the pool will be just as strong led by the five-meter potential from Piper Smith and more attacking pieces ready to jump into the mix in Rylee Williams, Jessica Lynch, and Ariana Bockstahler.

The goalkeeper position is also a fierce competition between senior Jenna Phreaner and second-year talent Morgan Jones. The veteran cage presence of Phreaner took over in 2018 with a 4.06 goals-against-average and 187 saves. Jones proved her worth holding her own against the likes of USC, UCLA, and Cal. Phreaner and Jones each had impressive double-digit save performances with eight and three, respectively, with high games of 16 from Phreaner (vs. Hartwick) and 15 from Jones (vs. USC)

Fast and Furious
"We start fast, we play two teams on our first day that made the NCAA Tournament last year in UCLA and Wagner."

Coach Klatt sees the first weekend of action up in Santa Barbara as an intriguing test out of the gate. A pair of NCAA Tournament-caliber squads will be who the Anteaters are pitted against early on, and the 'Eaters square off with the Bruins twice within the first month for a chance to finally get the program's first career win over the storied class of collegiate water polo which includes Stanford and USC.

Inviting the Challenge
The 'Eaters will really see how they stack up in the mid-season invitationals in the month of February, first at UC San Diego and finishing with the pride of the collegiate water polo season, the Barbara Kalbus Invitational at UC Irvine.

UC Irvine battled it out at the 2018 Triton Invite falling by a total of three goals in losses to USC and Arizona State. The 2018 Kalbus was a rough road for the 'Eaters finishing eighth behind a loss in the grudge match with Arizona State and an overtime loss to Pacific. The experience once again served vital helping the squad toward its late run finishing on a 10-5 run to reach the postseason

Bigger and Better
The Big West Conference more than ever is wide open amongst its six women's water polo programs. The 'Eaters scratched and clawed through the competition in 2018 falling during the regular season to Hawai'i and UC Davis before finding three tournament wins. Coach Klatt understands the level of competition in the Big West will remain high in 2019.

"Our conference is going to be tight as usual. I don't have any expectation for any huge wins or huge losses. I expect to play every game to within a one or two-goal margin."

Many of the squads in the Big West return a majority of their impact players with Hawai'i, coming off a 21-5 record and Big West regular season title, entering as the class of the conference. The Big West has seen different regular season champs in each of the last three seasons, and in three of the last four years, the representative in the NCAA Tournament has not been the regular season champion. The 2019 Big West Tournament will take place at Long Beach State in late April with the winner earning an automatic berth to the NCAA Championships being held at Avery Aquatic Center at Stanford University

Up Next
UCI faces a re-match with ULCA Saturday, Feb. 16 at 1 p.m. in Los Angeles.