Dartmouth's water polo success rooted in Hawai'i

By Leila Wai
Advertiser Staff Writer

A season that started in paradise ended in the national championship game for the Dartmouth women's water polo team.

For their preseason training, the Big Green traveled nearly 5,600 miles from Hanover, N.H., to Hawai'i to prepare and bond for the upcoming season.

"It's nice to get away, especially after the winter," sophomore Kristin Simun-ovich said. "It was incentive — if we're going to be working that hard, it's better to be somewhere pleasant."

It's also somewhere Simunovich, a 2002 graduate of Punahou from Kailua, and freshman Sarah Rosa, a 2003 graduate of Punahou from Hawai'i Kai, call home.

"It helped because we were comfortable with each other," Rosa said of the trip's influence on the team's season. "Knowing each other, we were able to go out into the pool and have confidence in each other to complete the plays."

It all paid off at the Women's National Collegiate Water Polo Championships, when the Big Green took second, losing to Cal Poly State University, 7-4, on May 1 in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Rosa was selected to the all-tournament first team.

It was a good ending for a season with a great start.

The March trip was the first time the team gathered together, giving the players a chance to get to get to know each other before the season started. The team, which placed third in last year's national club championships, lost one player to graduation and had four new players, including Rosa.

"We'd come home from training and would be so tired, but we would take turns cooking and hanging out," Rosa said. "It was a good time to bond and get really close as a team."

Dartmouth takes a trip every spring break, and this year coach Jim Wilson said things, "just fell together nicely."

He said he brought his men's swim team to Hawai'i during the winter, and spoke to University of Hawai'i women's water polo coach Michel Roy and found out UH was hosting the Aloha Classic the same week he was planning on bringing his water polo team to Hawai'i.

Rosa, who was selected First Team All-New England, said playing in the tournament, featuring teams such as USC, Stanford and Indiana, taught the team about physical toughness.

"We had to step it up and stand our ground," she said. "When we came back to our league, it was hard to adjust to the refs again."

It helped that Rosa's aunt had a beach house in Portlock where the team could stay.

"When we got there the team was in awe," Rosa said. "They were like, 'You live in a fantasy land,' and 'Why did you come to Dartmouth?' "

They also were able to use Punahou's pool for training, with help from Rosa's and Simunovich's former high school coach Ken Smith.

It was that bond from playing together since Rosa was in the seventh grade and Simunovich in the eighth grade that helped solidify the team.

"We've had this connection of plays that we know," Simunovich said. "Whenever we did things our coach would refer to us as Team Hawai'i."

"We were really good friends (before I went to Dartmouth)," Rosa said. "We would hang out in the summer and go hiking and stuff."

Wilson said that Simunovich, a driver, and Rosa, mainly a 2-meter defender, are real "Dartmouth kids," with a "real desire to do well."

He said Simunovich is "so adaptable, she's always there around the ball. She always downplays her ability level, but she can fit into any system."

Rosa, he said, "has a shot that rivals a lot of the guys." Wilson said that nearly 6-foot Rosa "really stymied a lot of players with her long arms."

Simunovich was part of the reason Rosa decided to join the team.

"I knew I wanted to do something to keep me busy," said Rosa, who said she chose Dartmouth because of its academics. "I went in to check it out and went to a couple of practices and fell in love with it."

She said the one thing she regrets is missing out on this week's inaugural state girls championships.

"I was so excited when I heard about that," Rosa said. "It's amazing how much the sport has grown. One thing in high school, we only had four teams, and we always wanted more competition and more teams to play."

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2457.