FRESNO, Calif. - The No. 7 Fresno State water polo team has another big weekend coming up as it heads south to the Triton Invite, hosted by UC San Diego. Of the field of 16 teams this weekend, 13 are ranked in the Top 25.
The Bulldogs are grouped in Bracket C with No. 5 Hawai'i, No. 15 UC Santa Barbara, and Cal State Fullerton.
Triton Invitational
Jan. 31 - Feb. 2, 2025 • La Jolla, Calif. • Canyonview Aquatic Center
Friday: vs. No. 15 UC Santa Barbara, 8 a.m. PT
Saturday: vs. TBD, TBD
Sunday: vs. TBD, TBD
Live Stats: Live scoring is only available for games including the host school (UC San Diego)
Live Stream: None
Tournament Notables
The Canyonview Aquatics Center will have two pools operating at the same time – the Triton Pool and the Canyonview Pool.
The tournament has 16 competing teams, in four brackets.
Bracket A: No. 1 UCLA, No. 7 Arizona State, No. 14 UC San Diego and Concordia
Bracket B: No. 3 USC, No. 11 LMU, No. 21 UC Davis, and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
Bracket C: No. 5 Hawai'i, No. 7 Fresno State, No. 15 UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Fullerton
Bracket D: No. 6 UC Irvine, No. 10 Long Beach State, No. 18 San Diego State and No. 22 CBU
Just two teams in the tournament are from outside of California - Arizona State and Hawai'i
There are five GCC teams in the tournament - Concordia, LMU, Fresno State, San Diego State and CBU.
Fresno State appears at the tournament for the third-straight year. The Bulldogs have finished 2-2 in their last two trips.
Bulldog Bones
Fresno State is 3-3 to open the season.
Fresno State jumped to No. 7 in this week's CWPA national team rankings, up from No. 9 where it started the season.
The Bulldogs went 1-2 at the Cal Cup, defeating No. 8 Long Beach State but falling to No. 4 Cal and No. 1 UCLA.
Fresno State's three losses this season have been to Top 5 teams, falling to No. 4 Cal twice and the top-ranked UCLA.
Fresno State has taken home both GCC Player of the Week honors so far this season with Abbey Simshauser earning it in week one and Brooke Ochoa this week.
Fresno State has outshot its opponents 188-157 this season.
The Bulldogs are 29-of-64 on their powerplay chances.
Fresno State has scored 10 or more goals in each game this season.
The Bulldogs are coached by head coach Natalie Benson, who is in her 8th season at the helm
Deep Dive on the players
Fresno State is led in scoring by junior Hailey Andress, who has 21 goals.
Senior Brooke Ochoa is second with 20 goals. The senior Bulldog has now moved into third place in the record book for career goals with 163 as a Bulldog.
Ochoa also has 100 career steals with four so far this season. She sits second all-time behind Daphne Guevremont (2019-23) with 114.
Ochoa has 111 career assists, including five this season, to sit second all-time. Again, behind Guevremont.
Ochoa has not scored fewer than two goals in a game this season, including a season-high five goals against No. 1 UCLA last time out.
Abbey Simshauser is third on the team with 13 goals this season. She now has 85 goals in her Bulldog career, and is sixth all-time.
The Bulldogs have three of the program's Top 7 scorers all-time on the current roster in Andress, Ochoa and Simshauser.
Ashley Williams leads the team with 18 drawn exclusions so far this season. She is up to 80 in her career, the third-most in program history.
Fresno State has seen significant action from two true freshmen in Marit van der Kolk and Alexandra Schow.
In goal, the Bulldogs have rotated between Ida Tully-Giles and Islay Martin-Hill. Tully-Giles has started four games while Martin-Hill has two starts.
Martin-Hill has recorded 26 saves, and Tully-Giles has 18.
A look ahead
The Bulldogs return home to host the Bulldog Mini at the Aquatics Center on Saturday, Feb. 15 before turning their attention to conference play.