It was either sink or swim.
Well, they not only stayed afloat but customary to gameplay, they had all other teams gasping for a breath. The women’s water polo club had all other teams under; ASU rose.
The Sun Devils’ A-team won the Albuquerque regional tournament in New Mexico in late-March, beating all four teams that entered. The B-team, their secondary team, went 2-2 with one of their losses being the A-team.
For that, coach AJ Grucky is confident. That tournament was just a stepping stone for the regional championships on April 14 and 15. The A-team, now 11-1 on the season, will be seeded first in the tournament. The B-team, still qualifying for the championship, will be seeded third.
“We were able to come away with the win,” Grucky says. “I’m really confident. It’s really important to be confident.”
The championships will be held at The University of Arizona’s student recreation center. Grucky is unfazed by this. In Albuquerque, the A-team beat UofA 8-6 to win the tournament. Grucky says on a historical level, they’ve never lost in their pool when it’s a title game nor plan to anytime soon.
“I’m not taking this lightly at all,” Grucky says. “We’ll rise.”
Grucky says that they will rise because of their defense. He expects his defense to compensate for any dysfunction on the offensive end — if there is any. By default, with defense there will be offense.
This is how he sees the weekend:
There are three brackets. The first bracket has the 1, 4 and 5 seeds; the second bracket has the 2, 3 and 6 seeds; the third bracket, that does not play for a championship at all, has the 7, 8, 9 and 10 seeds. Within the brackets, there is a round robin. The best from those mini-tournaments enter a sort of a playoff system.
That Friday, the A-team will square off against Air Force. Grucky says that the team has depth, but the team is also too inexperienced. He expects his team, with four seniors, to knock off Air Force easily.
On Saturday, the A-team will then do battle with Colorado State. Grucky also expects an easy win out of this one as the Rams only have a few skilled players in his opinion. He thinks that his team has enough depth to wear on those skilled players and capitalize on their tiredness.
“I am foreseeing two easy wins,” Grucky says.
Grucky also sees the championship coming down to his A-team and the UofA. UofA will need to first beat ASU’s B-team to get there. This is where Grucky strategizes.
“I don’t think (the B-team) has the experience to put up a fight,” he says.
That doesn’t matter. Grucky is using the B-team to wear down UofA so when the A-team and UofA meet, the Sun Devils can come out guns-a-blazing.
“Win or lose (B-team), as long as I know (UofA) is exhausted coming in and the A-team comes in with two easy wins, we’ll walk away as the champions,” Grucky says.
Grucky doesn’t think the ‘Cats can swim.
He just needs to monitor his players through the course of the weekend. Grucky says that they need to play their game and not get rattled.
Stefanna Spoletini, a sophomore therapeutic recreation major, thinks that the championship is in their favor.
“I know that our team is good,” Spoletini says. “We can do it. We’re confident. I’m not worried about any game in particular.”
Spoletini is not worried because she thinks that the defense, like Grucky, will come through. The defense is a great aspect to the team, she says.
“Score. That’s our biggest thing,” Spoletini says.
With that, she thinks that the team can go undefeated. Grucky thinks that they can go undefeated.
The plan just needs to unfold.
You can reach me at bcapria@asu.edu.
