Tuesday, April 28, 1998
Fresh out of the water
W.POLO: These three freshmen water polo players amply prove
their worth and skill despite their seeming lack of experience
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Staff
Freshmen. Who needs them?
Actually, the women’s water polo team isn’t complaining about
its three freshmen field players. To the surprise of some, they’ve
been contributing more to the team than expected.
"We don’t even consider them freshmen anymore, with the way
they’re playing," assistant coach Adam Krikorian said.
They’re young, and they may be inexperienced. But they are
anything but incapable.
Freshmen Robin Beauregard, Kristin Guerin and Michelle Lee made
a splash this season and are not likely to get out of the pool for
the next several years.
Beauregard was one of the most highly recruited players coming
out of high school. With 44 points so far this season, she is the
fourth-leading scorer on the team.
"We’ve gotten more out of Robin than what we expected,"
Krikorian said. "She’s the full package – great offense, great
shot, one of the best two-meter defenders in the country."
Guerin didn’t join the team with as much expected of her. But
she turned out to be quite a valuable find. With 39 points so far,
this freshman is the sixth highest scorer on the team.
"Kristin’s been a nice surprise," UCLA head coach Guy Baker
said. "She’s had a really good year, offensively and defensively.
She’s made a lot more contributions to the team than I thought she
would. I’m a bit surprised how she’s become such a key part of the
team."
Lee provides quickness and aggressive play out of the bench.
Nicknamed "El Nino" by her teammates, she’s quite the fiery chili
pepper. She hasn’t had as much playing time as the others, but her
coaches understand she’s a freshman on her way up.
"Michelle’s having what we would call a normal freshman year,"
Baker said. "She’s in transition from high school to college, and
she has a bright future. She’ll be a force in the years to
come."
Every freshman has her share of first-year stories. As both
students and athletes, these girls have plenty. It just shows that
no matter how talented or accomplished you are, you’re still a
freshman.
"The first day of class, I was stressing and doing the typical
things freshmen do on the first day, like worrying about not being
able to find my classes and stuff like that," Guerin said.
"I was really worried about who my roommate was going to be,"
Lee said, "but she turned out OK. But on my first day of class, I
was totally lost, and I came late to all my classes."
Beauregard’s first day of class, however, was anything but
normal.
"My best friend from high school fell off her bed and called me
up at 7 a.m.," she said. "I went to her dorm room and she had a
concussion. I called Michelle since she had a car and she drove us
to the medical center. She ended up being OK, and I barely made it
to my class."
And then there’s dorm life. Beauregard and Lee lucked out with
Sunset Village, while Guerin got little chance of socializing with
her Hedrick Quiet Floor neighbors. But Guerin has the advantage
when it comes to dining halls, since hers has been renovated.
"The typical thing for college students to say is, ‘Yuck, dorm
food is terrible!’" Guerin said. "But since they redid the dining
hall, it’s so much better. People from different sports, like
softball, diving and water polo, all sit down in there and talk for
hours, not even eating most of the time."
"But Sunset food?" Lee questions. "I don’t know about that
…"
Whatever the dorming situation, there’s one thing they all
enthusiastically agree on college life.
"Freedom!" Lee exclaims. "In high school, I had to be home by 11
on Saturday nights. I like college life because I can do anything I
want, and nobody’s going to tell me I can’t do it."
Once the season started, the freshmen admit their first
experience at UCLA was a bit awkward. With 13 freshmen initially on
the team, it may have been overwhelming for the upperclassmen,
too.
"It was a little weird because all the upperclassmen were
sitting in one group, and the freshmen were sitting in another,"
Guerin said. "It took awhile for the whole team to start
mingling."
"Yeah," Beauregard added, "we had segregated lanes in practice.
And Adam (the assistant coach) always used to make fun of us."
After freshman initiation, which included running around campus
in their swimming suits and getting autographs from fellow students
on their body parts, they quickly became a well -bonded unit.
"I like the team camaraderie," Beauregard said. "It’s comforting
to know you’re going to be here four years and everyone is good
friends with each other."
Now that they’re approaching the end of the season, they feel
they’ve gotten used to the program. They also realize they have an
opportunity to improve and continue the team’s winning tradition in
the next several years.
"I learned a lot more about the game just in the past couple of
months," Lee said. "Coming in I thought I had water polo down. But
once I was here, I felt I didn’t know anything about the game and
that I had to start all over again.
"I learned a lot from Guy," Lee continues. "His seriousness
stresses me out sometimes but he makes me work harder, though. I
just want to get better."
Beauregard adds, "It’ll be nice to win the national championship
and win it three more years after that. It’d be nice to have four
rings and give them to your family."
Like most of their freshman peers, they’re also looking forward
to the years to come. They’re enthusiastic about meeting more
people, doing well in school and just finding out what they want to
do with their lives.
You would think with the kind of success these three are having,
they’d never want this year to be over. But then again, it wouldn’t
hurt not being labeled as freshmen anymore.
"Yeah, we’re ready for this year to be over," they all said. "It
was really long."