Flanagan honored in water polo

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Four Punahou graduates, one from Kahuku and a University of Hawai'i player from the Netherlands yesterday were named to All-America women's water polo teams by the American Water Polo Coaches Association.

Senior Maureen Flanagan (Punahou '99 of Hawai'i Kai) of NCAA champion UCLA was named third team in Division I.

Brown senior Tori Barbata (Punahou '99 of Kailua) and Hawai'i senior Karin Van Hoff of Barendrecth, Netherlands, received Division I honorable mention.

In Divisions II and III, Hawai'i had two first-team selections.

1999 Kahuku graduate Meris Bantilan-Smith of Hale'iwa, a junior at University of California-San Diego, was first team in Division II and freshman Annie Richardson (Punahou '02 of Maunalani Heights) of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps was first team in Division III.

Flanagan held Stanford's Brenda Villa, the 2002 national College Player of the Year and leading scorer in the 2002 World Cup, without a goal in the conference and national championship games.

Barbata, Brown's captain, was also first-team All-Eastern Collegiate (ECAC) for the second time and helped the Bears finish second in the Eastern tournament.

Van Hoff is No. 6 in career scoring for UH and was voted the team's Most Inspirational Player this season.

Bantilan-Smith, one of the pioneers of high school girls water polo in Hawai'i, was second in goals (41) and steals (50) and third in assists (21) for 12th-ranked San Diego.

Richardson, who transferred from UCLA after one semester, set a Claremont scoring record of 115 goals in her first season.