Depth drives Rainbow Wahine water polo

Now in her 11th year with the Rainbow Wahine water polo program, Maureen Cole can’t recall a pool of talent quite this deep.

Along with returning nearly the entire roster off last year’s 20-8 team, the Wahine welcome back three redshirts who ranked among the top four scorers of the 2015 Big West title team while adding a promising freshman class to the mix.

“I hate to get ahead of myself, but this is by far been the deepest Hawaii has ever been,” Cole said on the eve of her sixth season opener as head coach.

“We’ve got depth at every position, which is a situation we’ve never been in before. I think that’s really exciting. It’s team water polo because we’re really solid at every position. We’re just trying to play good water polo and I think it’ll be a bit unpredictable where we’re not just trying to go to one person every single time. It’s really fun to coach.”

UH closed last season ranked seventh in the Collegiate Water Polo Association poll and tied for fifth with Arizona State in this year’s preseason poll.

The Wahine, the highest ranked Big West team in the poll, showed off some of their firepower in a 14-9 season-opening win over No. 10 Pacific on Friday to open the three-day UC Santa Barbara Winter Invitational.

All four classes contributed to the scoring with junior Chloe Barr leading the way with four goals in her return from a redshirt year. Senior Nikki-Marie Bell and junior Claire Nixon added two goals each and the Wahine got one goal from senior Gabi Mantellato, sophomores Julia Barton, Femke Aan and Carla Abellan and freshmen Samantha Malouff and Maartje Keuning. UH goalie Ymane Hage made seven saves.

UH faces Marist and No. 11 UC San Diego on Saturday and closes the weekend against No. 15 Indiana and No. 2 USC on Sunday.

Barr scored 73 goals while earning Big West Player of the Year and second-team All-American honors in 2015 and redshirted last year. Nixon also sat out last season after scoring 35 goals as a sophomore. Both Barr (Australia) and Nixon (Great Britain) are members of their national programs and contributed in practice last year while redshirting.

“I think they’re really stoked to be playing with them instead of always being the scout team.” Cole said. “It’s been nice to blend everyone together.”

Mantellato, who scored 27 goals two years ago, also redshirted while training with Brazil’s national team and competed in the Rio Olympics last summer in her home country.

“She was special and she had some great games for us, but I knew she hadn’t tapped into consistent training and all that,” Cole said of Mantellato’s junior year. “A year of playing the best teams in the world on the national team, she’s been awesome. She’s a good leader, a great center presence. It’s been awesome to have her back.”

Irene Gonzalez, last year’s Big West freshman of the year, was among the last cuts from Spain’s Olympic roster and returns after leading the Wahine with 73 goals last season. Aan ranked second with 51 followed by Bell (43), Barton (28) and Abellan (26).

“They’ve blended really nicely,” Cole said of the returnees and redshirts. “A little concerning maybe initially because people’s roles will change from last year or the year before. We had underclassmen leading and captains and then really experienced people coming back and everyone’s really bought in to the team and just playing their role.”

The mix adds to the chemistry and kicked up the competition in practice, which Cole, a Punahou and UCLA graduate, hopes elevates their level of play on game days.

“It’s night and day,” Cole said. “Coming from UCLA we always talked about our training being harder than most of our games and you just play that way. If you train that hard every single day you’re just naturally going to get better and our training was so great this whole fall. They worked their butts off so it’s been a good culture and a fun environment to be in and I hope it pays off this season.

“There’s no sitting back and it coming to them. Everyone’s gotta work for it and they all do. It makes my job as a coach really fun.”

The Wahine will test themselves with a nonconference schedule that includes two matches with No. 2 USC and one each with No. 1 Stanford and No. 3 UCLA.

“All of them have so many returning Olympians from the U.S. and around the world,” Cole said. “The best players in the world are playing NCAA this year. The more competitive games we get under our belt before the conference championships the better. That’s definitely our mentality.”

While UH leads the Big West in the national polls, UC Irvine is just behind at No. 7 and UCSB, which defeated UH in the Big West tournament championship match last season, begins the season at No. 8. Long Beach State won last year’s regular-season title and was voted No. 13.

The Wahine will see two familiar faces on Sunday when the take on Indiana, coached by former UH assistant Ryan Castle and Emily Carr, a member of the 2015 BWC title team. Castle and Carr will return to Manoa with the Hoosiers in March for a rematch with the Wahine.

“I’m so stoked for him,” Cole said. “It’s a great opportunity. He’s a great coach, so I’m sure he’ll do great things as well as Em Carr his assistant. … It’s pretty special.”

The Wahine will play 16 matches before making their home debut on March 17 against USC at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex.