UC Irvine senior Danielle Warde (Huntington Beach, Calif./Edison HS) tied the conference record with her fifth career Big West Women’s Water Polo Player of the Week designation, playing a huge role in two league victories.
The attacker scored eight goals over the two games as the Anteaters upended No. 15 UC Santa Barbara (6-4) and No. 7 CSUN (11-7) on the road. She posted four goals in each win to lift UCI to a 2-0 Big West record, and improve her team to 5-0 against conference opposition this season.
Warde nearly scored half of her team’s 17-goal output for the weekend. In addition to displaying her scoring prowess, Warde contributed in other ways. She added three more steals to her team-leading total as well as an assist, a field block, and two earned exclusions, one of which led to a penalty.
The eight goals pushes Warde’s season total to 31, second-most on the squad, and her career haul to 188, which ranks No. 5 in Anteater history.
Others nominated: Madeleine Sanchez (CSUN); Alexandra Massier (Long Beach State); Mackenzie Brokaw (UC Santa Barbara); Paula Chillida Esforzado (Hawai‘i)