1996- Women's Water Polo establishes themselves
1/25/2021 12:00:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
by Maddie Brauer
The history of UC Santa Cruz's women's NCAA water polo team was a bumpy path filled with ups and downs. Through the growing pains however, two players were the tip of the spear: Diana Scott and Maria Zavala. For a seven-year stretch, Scott and Zavala were the leading scoring threats for the Water Polo team as they transformed what was a club sport to a competitive NCAA contender. Each year that they played the two were Division Three All-Americans. Scott began her legacy in 1996 and dominated the pool until 1999, while Zavala followed suit earning All-America honors from 1999 to 2002.
In the mid 1990s, women's water polo was gaining momentum as the fastest growing sport at the college and high school levels. Scott, coming from a long line of great swimmers and surfers in her family, found herself in love with the pool as early as elementary school. Zavala was part of nascent programs in Palo Alto, first at Castilleja School and then Gunn High. Despite her extensive involvement in the sport, Zavala almost didn't join the team in college after she arrived on a Regents' Scholarship. Team captain Scott, who was familiar with her play in club and school, convinced Zavala during informal Fall workouts to join UCSC's team.
"Maria was a really strong player, so certainly in order to get a team together that we weren't flailing out there, it's important to have people like Maria," Scott recalled. "I mean, I don't think of myself as a leader, but I was always the captain of the team, you know? I think I generally am just a positive person and I do see the value in working together."
In each of Scott's years on the team, she had a new coach. She began under Matt Nowark in 1996. Aubrey Miller was in charge in 1997, then was replaced by Steve Hansen in 1998, the year that the program officially joined the NCAA and were Division III National Runners-up. Scott complimented Hansen, saying "he was really great and certainly motivated us to push ourselves more."
"For me, it was just right as far as a program went, because we had such a good time," she continued. "We played and weren't hell-bent on being the best, but we really had such a good team dynamic, had a lot of fun and we went to all these tournaments with 'hey let's let's just do our best and whatever we do, it's no big deal.' "
The year that Scott and Zavala were together in 1999, the Banana Slugs finished with a school-record 24 wins and were third in Division III. They also played lots of Division I teams, including to Hawaii to play Cal, Pacific and the host Rainbows. Scott added "one of my favorite memories was a tournament in Santa Barbara. It must have been D-1. We were going to a last game which was basically for last place. Queen's We Are the Champions came on the radio, and we are all in this big van heading to the game, and all of us just singing it at the top of our lungs, not letting the fact that we were D-3 really get in the way of just making it powerful."
The 1999 team at the Hawai'i Tournament. Zavala is top row second from right, next to Scott in glasses
(Courtesy of M. Zavala)
In 2000, another coaching change occurred as swimming coach Kim Musch stepped in. Now a sophomore, Zavala enjoyed taking advantage of his wisdom and coaching abilities, saying she "got a lot of feedback on my technique and I think I swam better than I have ever swum like in my life." The Slugs hosted the Division III National Tournament, and finished fourth where Zavala led the team in scoring enroute to another All American award.
Zavala's junior year reunited her with coaches Randy Whitchurch (her club coach in middle and high school at Radian Water Polo) and Alan Cima (father of her high school and college teammate Bekki). "Randy was my first water polo coach and the person I credit with teaching me to play water polo," Zavala recalled. She explained that "he had a really great approach to how he coached the sport. Everybody had talent in his eyes, everybody had a position they could play." The new coaches also brought stability and impressive recruiting practices, getting talented players like Emily Erskine from San Diego, who Zavala recalled could have gone to a D-I program, but wanted to come to Santa Cruz. The rest of the 2000s saw either Cima, Whitchurch or both in some coaching capacity for the team.
Zavala remembers Occidental being one of the big rivals, especially when coach Whitchurch's daughter Katie played for the Tigers. "Whenever we faced off, they had Katie and Jackie Provost (MVP of 2000 National Championships) in goal, who was just phenomenal.
"Jackie and I were in the same grade at Castilleja, same age group when we played club together all through high school. We were and are still good friends, and it was fun but also challenging to be college rivals."
In 2002, Zavala scored 59 goals as a senior from her 2-meter position. "I had a few years under my belt, so I knew how to use my own assets in the pool," she said of her scoring skills. "I was very well suited -and still am- to that kind of play, that very physical match."
Zavala talked about the memories that were made both inside and outside of the pool, one being a tricky road trip driving from L.A. "You know it was a time when we could drive ourselves places. We could check out the Vans and you'll get the approval to be The Driver or whatever. One particular trip, we were coming back from Southern California and the pass over the Grapevine was snowed out, so we were trying to come back and getting deviated off the road for the GPS system. And I still remember driving shifts at 2 in the morning on the back roads between Paso Robles and Santa Cruz, and our goalie (Jade Walsh) was in the passenger seat keeping me awake."
The lessons and experiences that team play offered Zavala and Scott have poured into their professional and adult lives. Zavala decided to take the educator route and now teaches at San Francisco State's College of Education, of course still spending time in the pool playing on a Masters team in Oakland. Scott owns a restaurant in the North Bay and also remains in the water, but instead goes surfing anytime she is able to step outside of the pizza parlour. Both of these UCSC alumnae credit their time on campus as being enriching.
Zavala concluded with the highly beneficial nature of female participation in sports. "I'm a big advocate for women's sports, especially at the D3 level, where your sport gives you that sense of belonging and sisterhood and we are all there for the same reason - to play a sport we love while getting an excellent college education." she said.
Scott talked about the character development that strong team culture yields.
"I always had a lot of drive, but with the team, it teaches you so much to be reliant on other people and it can't be just all about you. It's just such a strong learning experience for everybody, and I'm so thankful that I could have that ."
