This weekend, the No. 15 IU water polo team begins its postseason by partaking in the CWPA Western Division Championships in Geneva, Ohio.
The first game for IU will be against No. 18 Michigan 2:15 p.m. Saturday. It will be a rematch from the Hoosiers' regular season finale, which they lost in overtime 8-7 to the hands of the Wolverines. On the other side of the bracket are No. 16 Hartwick, Gannon, and Notre Dame (Ohio). Those three teams will play a round-robin format to determine the second-round matchups with IU and Michigan.
The rest of IU's games depend on the outcome of every match. If the Hoosiers don't lose their first two matchups, they will play Sunday for at least the third-place crown. If they win their first two matchups, they will play in the championship game at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.
Here are the thoughts of IU Coach Barry King and sophomores Shelby Taylor and Summer Creighton on the weekend.
On the opportunity to get revenge on Michigan:
King: "Sure. We'll have the chance to fix a couple things. We're always looking for chances to improve and be playing our best water polo, so we're looking forward to it."
Taylor: "I'm always excited to play Michigan. It's always going to be an exciting game whether we're better than them or they're better than us. Since it's a rivalry, it's always even. I think it's definitely gonna be fun to beat them."
Creighton: "I'm definitely excited to play them again, because last time, it was a rough ending, not really what we wanted, so now we get a chance to prove that we're the better team. It's always fun to play a rivalry game."
On what they need to change against Michigan this time around:
King: "For me personally, we've got to do something about our substitution patterns. Our rotations need to be a little bit crisper. From a team, effort wise, we have to do a better job of playing the fourth quarter like we play the first quarter. We did a lot of really good things defensively in the first quarter. We kind of took steps backwards in the fourth and allowed the action to come at us a little bit too much."
Taylor: "I think just the little things we screwed up, our nerves mostly. We just need to focus on us, especially our power play. Put the ball in the net more times than them. That's all we need to do."
Creighton: "Definitely our power play needs to get cleaned up a little bit. If we put those away, we'll definitely win the game, and then just other little mistakes. This time we'll be ready."
On how important this tournament is:
King: "Less important. It would be nice to win and then get probably the No. 1 seed in the Eastern tournament. More importantly, it's about feeling good about the way that we're playing. If we're playing well and the results don't come, that's a different story than if we play poorly and the results don't come. We're going to do our best to win, but more importantly we're gonna do our best to be playing our best water polo."
Taylor: "I don't think physically or seeding wise it's important to do well this weekend, but I think mentally it is. If we come out first, we're gonna have a far better attitude going into Easterns than we possibly could if we come out not first this weekend."
Creighton: "It will be good for our confidence, and if we win this, then we get the first seed for Easterns, which will give us an easier road to the championship game, which is always nice to have. But even if we don't, it will be fine. We'll just have a tougher battle when we get to Easterns."
On if they prefer to face a specific opponent after Michigan:
King: "We can't face Hartwick, so no. We're going to play the games as they come." (The team actually could face Hartwick, though it is highly unlikely.)
Taylor: "I want to play Hartwick again. We lost to them the last time we played them. I don't even want to talk about, it was ridiculous. But it'll definitely be good to go in there and prove that there was no way we should have lost that game."
Creighton: "I would definitely like to see Hartwick, as well. Getting a good game in against Michigan and then another hard game against Hartwick will allow us to prepare for Easterns better. It's always fun to play good teams."
On if they prefer one game in the first round or the three-team pool play:
King: "No, I'm not happy with the format, but that doesn't have anything to do with where we are in the thing, you know. We earned the three seed by taking those two losses, and it's just a matter of, again, playing the games as they come."
Taylor: "I wish we were the other way around. It's always good to get better games, but we did it to ourselves. We made our own seeding, so whatever way, we've gotta come out on top."
Creighton: "Same."
On the health status of freshman goalkeeper Jessica Gaudreault:
King: "Yeah, she's gonna play some. We don't know yet what we're gonna do and who's gonna start where, but yeah, she'll definitely be playing. She's probably right at 95 percent , 92.3 percent, something like that. Her arm strength isn't completely back, but she's there."
