CSUN Water Polo Heads to Irvine to Compete in Barbara Kalbus Invitational

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NORTHRIDGE, CA---

No. 22 CSUN Water Polo (9-9) returns to action this weekend at the Barbara Kalbus Invitational in Irvine, CA. The Matadors will start the weekend on Friday morning against No. 1 Stanford at 10 a.m. CSUN will then face either No. 8 Michigan or No 9 UC Santa Barbara on Saturday followed by another match later that afternoon and a final game on Sunday. The winner of Stanford versus CSUN will take on the winner of Michigan and UC Santa Barbara while the losers of the matches will face each other on Saturday morning.

Winners of four straight, the Matadors are riding their longest winning streak of the season. In last week's competition, CSUN posted victories over No. 25 Cal Baptist (11-5), Redlands (15-5), Azusa Pacific (8-7) and Pomona-Pitzer (9-3).

Junior attacker Madeleine Sanchez enjoyed an outstanding four games last week as she racked up 11 goals including a pair of four-goal efforts. In perhaps her strongest game of the week, Sanchez contributed to five of the Matadors' eight goals as she scored four times and picked up an assist in the one-goal win. In addition, Sanchez shot 11-for-21 from the field in the four matches and totaled nine steals.

Leading the team in scoring, Sanchez has 38 goals on the season on 43.7 percent shooting. For her efforts last week, Sanchez entered the Matadors' all-time Top 10 scoring list.

With 139 career goals, Sanchez sits in 10th place in the CSUN record books and she is just three away from tying Kelcie Ferreira (2012-15) for ninth place. Sanchez also leads the Matadors in steals with 56 on the season.

Providing production across the board, Katelyn Fairchild has 32 goals 35 steals and 17 assists this season for the Matadors. Also with double-digits goals, Shannon Hovanesian has 15 goals to go along with 29 assists, 31 steals and five field blocks. Center Amy Yule has shot 45.2 percent from the field and picked up 14 goals, 18 steals and 12 assists.

In the cage, junior Niki Van Vugt has amassed over 400 minutes in the pool and collected 117 steals. Freshman Nathalie Brewster has received over 170 minutes in net for CSUN, totaling 44 saves.

CSUN is looking for its first ever victory over Stanford on Friday. The Cardinal are a perfect 6-0 all-time against the Matadors. In the teams' last meeting, Stanford picked up a 16-3 win at UC Irvine's Invitational held in February 2015.

The Cardinal have gone 8-0 this season and won games by an average of 11.8 goals. In its only match last week, Stanford defeated Santa Clara, 19-1. On the offensive end, freshman Makenzie Fischer and seniors Jamie Neushul and Maggie Steffens have all scored a team-leading 17 goals this season. Senior goalkeeper Gabby Stone has seen the most time in net, playing in 20 quarters while averaging 9.60 saves per game.

CSUN Water Polo Heads to Irvine to Compete in Barbara Kalbus Invitational

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Players Mentioned

Nathalie Brewster

Miranda Coleman

Katelyn Fairchild

Shannon Hovanesian

Madeleine Sanchez

Niki Van Vugt

Amy Yule