Jan. 12, 2015
An intermittent rain on Saturday gave way to a consistent rain on Sunday, but none of it could stop the 2015 USA Water Polo National League from kicking off. Segerstrom High School in Santa Ana, CA played host to week 1 of the four week long National League and the we saw a variety of action from close contests to lop-sided affairs. Shoutout to all the folks who braved the elements to watch the National League. Each week after National League play we'll provide a National League round-up here at USAWaterPolo.org. First things first lets get to the results. You can access the week 1 schedule/results along with box scores for every match by clicking here. Also check out the team standings, team stats, and future schedules at the National Leauge home by clicking here.
National League Week 1 Results
#1 USA RED 8 vs. USA WHITE 10
#2 NYAC 6 vs. Olympic Club 10
#3 USA BLUE 7 vs. Alumni 10
#4 International 5 vs. USA RED 10
#5 USA WHITE 11 vs. NYAC 10
#6 Olympic Club 12 vs. USA BLUE 11
#7 Alumni 17 vs. International 8
#8 USA RED 13 vs. NYAC 10
#9 USA WHITE 7 vs. Olympic Club 16
#10 USA BLUE 11 vs. International 6
#11 Alumni 7 vs. USA RED 9
National League Standings (After Week 1)
USA Red (3-1) 13pts
Olympic Club (3-0) 12pts
USA White (2-1) 9pts
Alumni (2-1) 9pts
USA Blue (1-2) 5pts
New York Athletic Club (0-3)
International (0-3)
Game Of The Week: The late action on Saturday saw two one goal finishes as USA White edged the New York Athletic Club 11-10 while Olympic Club topped USA Blue 12-11. Our game of the week honors go to the first match between USA White and the New York Athletic Club. Down 10-7 early in the fourth quarter, New York clawed back to even the match on a penalty shot by Alex Bowen with 2:26 remaining. Then with just 20 seconds remaining Alex Obert scored his 7th goal of the game for USA White, on a penalty shot resulting from an illegally called timeout, to put USA White ahead for good at 11-10. A great finish for a great crowd on hand.
Obert Goes Off: Speaking of Alex Obert, it should come as no surprise that the current Pacific Tiger and Men's Senior National Team athlete leads the National League in scoring with 12 goals. While USA Red's Nick Bell is not far behind with 11 goals, Obert's monster 7 goal game was clearly one of the standout performances of the weekend.
10 Spot: This stat is not worth much but how about the winning team scoring 10 goals in each of the first four games of National League play? The streak was snapped in the fifth game of the day where New York Athletic Club lost to USA White 11-10. What does it all mean? It was a good day for offense on day one.
Two Last Names Are Better Than One: Long Beach State grad and International goalkeeper Derek Wiebe-Bailey leads the National League in saves thus far with 27. While we have to think he would trade a few of those saves for a victory, International started off 0-3, it is one place where this club is ahead of the pack.
Curley Is No Stooge: Olympic Club goalkeeper Jack Curley blocked not one, but two penalty shots in Olympic Club's 16-7 victory over USA White. Curley got his hand on a third penalty shot but couldn't keep it from crossing the goal line. 2 out of 3 ain't bad.
Youth Movement: The National League is full of athletes competing at the collegiate level and quite a few in the high school ranks. From the likes of Johnny Hooper and Blake Parrish on the New York Athletic Club to Dennis Blyashov and Chase Travisano on USA White the scholastic scene is well represented. One of those standouts was goalkeeper Andrew Chun from USA Red and the Bishop's School who currently leads the league in save percentage at .676.
TeamUSA.org Previews National League: TeamUSA.org, the official website of the USOC took a closer look at the launch of the National League. Writer Greg Bates spoke with High Performance Director John Abdou along with athletes Bret Bonanni and Alex Bowen to get an idea of their expectations for the lead.
Click here to read the feature.
Up Next: The National League resumes with Week 2 in Northern California at Miramonte High School in Orinda, CA on February 7-8. Admission is free to all the matches. Check out the full schedule
here.
Stat City: Through week 1 of the National League all match stats were compiled by a new program called the FOSH. It stands for Full On Sports Hub and right now the sport is water polo. On the week 1 schedule,
available here, you can click on the live stats option to see play-by-play and box scores of all the matches.
Video Highlights: USA Water Polo TV was on site this weekend in Santa Ana to profile two matches from Sunday including USA Red vs New York Athletic Club and Olympic Club vs USA White. Highlights will be posted this week to
YouTube.com/USAWP.
Social Media: The hashtag #USAWPNL debuted this weekend at the National League. Make sure when you are posting information on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram about the National League, be sure to add #USAWPNL. Get your voice involved in the National League conversation.
