Wednesday, April 15, 1998
Connect Four
Four women’s water polo players hail from Maryland
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Staff
A common phrase heard around the women’s water polo practice
pool: "It must be an Annapolis thing."
Whenever someone from Annapolis, Md–and there are quite a few
of them–makes a dorky mistake or does something clumsy, she knows
the light hearted ridicule that’ll follow.
Of all places, four of the top UCLA women’s water polo players
are from that small and distant place called Annapolis. What’s the
chance that four tight friends who played in the same age group
club team end up playing together for the highest ranked collegiate
water polo program thousands of miles away?
Coincidence or not, they’re here not only as targets of
geographical jokes, but as legitimate contributors to the
squad.
"They make a major impact on the team," explained their coach
Guy Baker, who happens to be the main instigator of these infamous
Annapolis jokes. "It’s interesting how four of our eight main field
players are from the same place."
Assistant coach Adam Krikorian, who isn’t so quiet about picking
on the Marylanders himself, added, "the thing with them is that
they’re all from the same area and they’re all good players and
good friends. But if you look at them individually, they’re totally
different."
"First of the bunch is junior two-meterman Catherine von
Schwarz," Baker said. "She’s the third leading scorer in the team
so far with 43 points. Being two-meterman, opponents guard her
heavily, holding her back or plunging her under water to get the
ball away from her. She just pops back up and even scores in the
most difficult circumstances.
"You’re not going to find a tougher player anywhere than
Catherine von Schwarz."
Second, there’s junior defender Mandy McAloon. She’s described
as one of the country’s best defensive players and she backs that
up with relentless guarding.
McAloon’s not a shabby offensive player, either. She has scored
a career high of three goals in a game and proved she excels all
around.
Then there’s sophomore playmaker Serela Mansur. She’s the lefty
of the team, which is a valuable rarity. Opponents emphasize on
guarding her right side, thinking she’s right handed. Using that to
her advantage, she is a key player on offense.
The fourth member is another sophomore playmaker by the name of
Erin Golaboski. She’s tall, strong and aggressive. Her height gives
her speed advantage and her strength and her size gives her reach.
She served well as a goalie last season and she’s meeting all
expectations as a field player this year as the second highest
scorer in the team, with 54 points.
Because these four have played together since childhood, they’ve
reached a level of familiarity where they don’t even have to
verbalize when they play.
McAloon explained, "When Serela and I are scrimmaging against
each other in practice, we know the little quirks that will get at
each other or push each other harder."
Golaboski added, "It helps the whole team when we’re playing
together because we know how we play and think."
So back to the enigma–how is it that four skilled players end
up in L.A. from a small area so far away?
Their current coach, Baker, explained, "I knew they played
together and knew each other but that’s not why I recruited them. I
picked them because they were good.
"The club they played for was one of the best in the East Coast.
Their club coach, Mike Schofield, did a great job training and
conditioning them."
McAloon and von Schwarz, the first two of the group to attend
UCLA, said although they were best friends, their decision to come
to this college was coincidental. Back then, UCLA’s brand new
varsity water polo team finished fifth in the national
championship.
"When Cat and I looked at colleges our high school senior year,
we would not talk about it because we didn’t want to influence each
other," McAloon recalled. "We decided separately and ended up
choosing the same school."
Their freshman year McAloon and von Schwarz helped UCLA win its
first national title.
Then came sophomores Mansur and Golaboski. The fact that UCLA’s
water polo program was No. 1 didn’t inhibit their decision to come
here. But once again, their emphasis on choosing a college wasn’t
solely on friendship.
"It made a difference since Cat and Mandy were already here but
they weren’t the main reason I chose to come here," admitted
Mansur. "UCLA was the best all-around school for me."
Now that they’re together in a team where most of its members
are from California, the Marylanders are regional standouts and
center of friendly teasing.
"Probably the only reason they came to UCLA is to get a tan,"
Baker joked. "Everyone on this team gets picked on some way or
another. You can’t get away from that, not even me."
Fortunately there are four of them to counterattack all the
Maryland jokes.
But in all seriousness being so far away from home has its
drawbacks, one being they can’t go home as often as their
teammates. It helps one to deal with homesickness with three others
from their home town and the rest of the team.
"To me, the team is a family because I’m so far away from home
and my own family," von Schwarz said.
McAloon added, "I agree with Cat. We rarely get to go home so
our teammates’ family becomes our family–their moms become our
moms. Any girl on the team would take us home for the holidays,
that’s how close we are."
"Our team seems to have more fun together compared to other
water polo teams," Golaboski said. "We hang out a lot which is
amazing considering how much time we already spend together in
practice."
So which state do they like better, California or Maryland?
For Golaboski, California is where it’s at.
"I love it here," she said. "I’m going to live here even after I
graduate."
Mansur’s answer is less assertive.
"I love Annapolis but it’s definitely good to get away and see
what’s out there. It’s so different now that I’m away from home
living all the way across the country but it’s definitely a special
thing to come all the way to college and play with the same group
of people that we’ve played with ever since we were little."
"Yeah," added von Schwarz, "If I didn’t like the school at all
and I still had the same girls on my team, I’d still stay."
JAMIE SCANLON-JACOBS/Daily Bruin
(Left to right) Mandy McAloon, Erin Golaboski, Serela Mansur and
Catherine von Schwarz grew up playing in the same club.