Not much separates teams in Big West tournament

Seventh-ranked Hawaii jumps in the pool Friday as the Big West tournament’s top-seeded team, which sounds great until you realize Big West water polo is a free-for-all.

The Rainbow Wahine beat sixth-ranked UC Irvine, which has won the previous four conference championships and hosts this weekend’s tournament at Anteater Aquatic Complex. UCI shared the regular-season title with the Wahine and, two weeks before that overtime loss to UH in March, beat it by a goal in a nonconference match.

Eighth-ranked San Diego State is the only team to defeat Hawaii in its inaugural Big West season. The Aztecs also split with UCI and lost to 16th-ranked UC Santa Barbara, seeded sixth. Of 28 Big West matches, 17 have been decided by two goals or less.

All eight Big West teams are in the Top 20 and only one is going to the national championship in two weeks at Harvard. Hawaii (18-9) hasn’t been to one since 2009.

"In our conference, it really is anyone’s game," said Katie Teets, Hawaii’s senior captain. "We won our last three conference games by one or two goals. …It is totally anyone’s matchup. You can’t overlook the first game because if you do, you won’t have any games after that. It’s a really cool dynamic. I don’t know if there is another conference like this."

The Wahine open against eighth-seeded Pacific (16-13), a team they beat by one earlier this month. For scoring, they always look to All-American Monika Eggens, the only Big West player averaging more than three goals, and Amarens Genee, who has 23 in her past five matches. Genee is third in career goals, while Eggens needs four to pass Kelly Mason’s 238 and become Hawaii’s leader.

But what coach Maureen Cole talks about is defense.

"I’m a firm believer that defense wins championships," said Cole, who has installed a "gapping and splitting" defense in her two seasons. It is much more active than the zone Hawaii played before and it has opened up the counterattack game, and the type of player Cole recruits.

When these five seniors — Eggens, Genee, Teets, Monique Wilson and Hannah Hogue — are gone, Danielle Lewis will be the only Wahine Cole did not recruit. This team has taken on her personality quickly.

"Sometimes I think they have the personality of their leaders," the coach said. "Monika and Amarens are very much leaders by example. They don’t like to speak a lot, so maybe because of them the girls are not very rambunctious. Other times, I can’t shut them up."

Teets concurs about the "serious but also lighthearted" description. The transfer was voted captain a year after arriving and her nurturing instincts have had a huge impact, along with her acceptance of a radical position change from center to center defender in the last month.

"I just want to be able to help any way I can," Teets said. "If that’s what I can do and I’m in the pool, it’s good to me."

Her calm demeanor has helped as much as her relentless defense. Outside the pool, Teets has been just as effective and multitalented.

She sang the national anthem on senior night, bringing tears to Cole’s eyes, and will do it again at the end of next month at Special Olympics. An active member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, she helped UH win its first Big West Coin Drive. Hawaii athletes collected $11,523 going through the Stan Sheriff Center stands in February. The money will go to the Hawaii Pacific chapter of the American Cancer Society, along with another $6,000 the other nine schools had to contribute when they fell short of UH’s total.

Teets graduates in two weeks with a psychology major and plans to return to Riverside City College to serve as assistant coach.

"We’ll see what happens from there," she said. "I love everything about college athletics, so I definitely want to stay in that capacity forever, not let it go."