FRESNO, Calif. - The No. 6 Fresno State water polo team heads south for a Golden Coast Conference meeting with No. 11 LMU on Saturday.
No. 6 Fresno State (14-5, 2-0 GCC) at No. 11 LMU (20-2, 2-0 GCC)
March 23, 2024 - 12 P.M. PT - Los Angeles, Calif. - Burns Aquatics Center
Series History: Fresno State leads, 4-3
Last Meeting: LMU def. FS 10-7 at the Triton Invite (Feb. 2, 2024)
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Bulldog Bones
Fresno State continues conference play against LMU this Saturday.
Saturday's contest features the Golden Coast Conference's top two teams from the preseason poll as Fresno State was picked to win and LMU picked to finish second.
Fresno State competes for its fourth-straight GCC title in 2024.
The Bulldogs have not lost a true conference game since March 27, 2021 in a 13-12 loss to San Diego State on the road.
Fresno State has a streak of 19 consecutive regular season conference wins.
The Bulldogs however did fall to a conference opponent this season, in a non-conference meeting. LMU defeated Fresno State 10-7 in the first game of the Triton Invitational.
The Bulldogs earned a No. 6 ranking in this week's CWPA team rankings.
Fresno State is the highest-ranked Golden Coast Conference team in this week's rankings.
Fresno State earned its highest ranking in program history with a No. 3 ranking for three weeks earlier this season.
Of Fresno State's 14 wins this season, nine have been against ranked opponents.
Fresno State is holding its opponents to an average of just 7.3 goals per game while holding its opponents to under 30 percent in shooting efforts.
New to the club
Sophomore Hailey Andress became the fastest Bulldog to score 100 career goals in program history, hitting the mark in the March 9th game against CBU, her 45th career game.
The sophomore Bulldog leads the team in scoring this season with 53 goals. She also leads the team (by a lot) with 120 shots. She had led the team in shots in 13 games this year, and goals in 10. Andress ranks fourth in the conference in goals scored entering this week's contest.
Andress has an active streak of 39 consecutive games with at least one goal, dating back to January 29, 2023.
In her career, Andress has just three games without a goal scored.
The honors roll in
Andress was named to the watch list for the Cutino Award last week. The Cutino Award recognizes the nation's top collegiate water polo player.
The award was created in 2022, and Andress is the first Bulldog to earn recognition by the organizations.
The queen of the drawn exclusion
Sophomore Ashley Williams has 34 drawn exclusions this season, already enough for eighth in a single season in program history.
In the last four games, she has totaled 19 drawn exclusions with a career-high eight against then-No. 12 Long Beach State. Eight drawn exclusions are the second-most in a game in program history with the record being nine. Former Bulldog Emily Nicholson holds the record, and was the only Bulldog in program history to have seven or more in a single game before Williams came along.
Williams has led the team in drawn exclusions in four games this season. She has nine games so far this year with multiple exclusions drawn.
She had 16 drawn exclusions last season as a freshman. 50 drawn exclusions puts her fourth all-time for career drawn exclusions.
Brooke Ochoa, the one and only
As the GCC Player of the Year a season ago, Brooke Ochoa hasn't let off the gas.
Ochoa continues to move up the program record leaderboards. Earlier this season, she became the fourth player to score 100 career goals, and she currently sits with 122 in her career. She has 17 career hat tricks, the fourth-most in a career. She also has 93 total assists for the third-most in a career and 79 career steals for the fourth-most in a career.
With seven more assists, she would join 2023 senior Daphne Guevremont as the only players in program history to have 100 career goals and 100 career assists.
It starts with the sprint
Cynthia Rosa has a 50-5 sprint record this season. She leads the conference in sprint wins and has the highest sprint win percentage at a near 91 percent clip.
This isn't new to Rosa, as she had a 70-5 sprint record in 2023, winning the most sprints in a season in program history while also recording the best sprint win percentage in program history (.933). In her career, she has 160 sprint wins and a .904 sprint win percentage.
Not new here anymore
Wagner College transfer Abbey Simshuaser has made an immediate impact for the Bulldogs in the pool this season, leading the team in points with 67 as she has scored 45 goals and added 22 assists.
Simshauser brings the efforts on both sides of the pool with her offensive efforts pacing the team but also her defensive. She is second on the team with 26 drawn exclusions, and leads the team with 34 steals.
In Fresno State single season history, she has already managed to ink her name in the record book as she is currently eighth in goals and fourth in steals.
Around the GCC, Simshauser ranks fifth in goals, T10th in assists, fourth in points, and second in steals.
Hot start
Fresno State had a hot start to the 2024 season, winning six-straight to open the season. The Bulldogs opened the season with their first-ever win over Michigan, defeating the No. 13 team in the country 11-10 in Fresno on Jan. 20.
The Bulldogs have twice defeated the No. 1 team in the country this season. First, taking down Stanford 11-10 on Jan. 21. It was the first time in program history that the Bulldogs defeated the Cardinal. Fresno State then defeated USC at the Triton Invitational on Feb. 3. Fresno State became just the second school since water polo became an NCAA sport in 2001 to defeat both Stanford and USC in the same season. Second-ranked Hawai'i became the third with a win over both teams in 2024 as well.
A moment for the head coach
Fresno State head coach Natalie Benson has built the program from the ground up, hired as the programs first head coach in 2016 for its inaugural season in 2018.
Since then, Benson has compiled a 93-68 record for the program. She has been named the Golden Coast Conference Coach of the Year three times, and was recognized with the Sandy Nitta Distinguished Coaching National Award in 2022.
Looking ahead
Fresno State sees a spring break nonconference matchup with Cal on Thursday, March 28 at the Aquatics Center at 12:30 p.m. Admission and parking are free of charge.