THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The Cal Lutheran women's water polo team has released its 2019 schedule which includes the Brown Invitational, the Tina Finali Invitational and 14 conference games.
The Regals were the runner-up in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) for the regular season and the tournament in 2018. Cal Lutheran is looking to take the next step in 2019. To do that, the Violet and Gold has a rigorous schedule against many Division I and II opponents.
"We will open the season in a very challenging way as we travel 3,000 miles to Brown University to compete in the Bruno Classic," said head coach Craig Rond. "It is always a tough task to travel from the west coast to the east coast and compete. All four games will be against Division 1 opponents. We want to put ourselves in challenging scenarios in order to prepare for conference play."
The Regals start the season Feb. 2 in Providence, R.I. They get St. Francis (N.Y.) at 7:30 a.m. and Brown at 1:45 p.m. All times are Pacific Standard Time (PST). They finish the tournament the very next day with Siena at 5:00 a.m. and St. Francis PA at 9:40 a.m.
The first home games of the year are on Feb. 19. The Regals welcome CSUN and Toronto to the Samuelson Aquatics Center with the games being at 1:30 and 4:30 p.m., respectively.
On Feb. 22-23, Cal Lutheran will host its annual Tina Finali Invitational. The Violet and Gold get started on the 22with Fresno Pacific at 9:00 a.m. and Sonoma State at 2:45 p.m. On the 23, the Regals take on Azusa Pacific at 8:00 a.m. and Fresno State at 12:00 p.m.
"In the Tina Finali Invitational, we will play three Division II teams (Azusa Pacific, Sonoma State, Fresno Pacific) and one division I team (Fresno State). Each of these games will pose a great challenge to us as they are all well-coached and have very accomplished athletes."
Conference play starts on Feb. 27 as Cal Lutheran travels Caltech with the game set for 7 p.m. The Regals host their first SCIAC game on March 6 as Claremont-M-S comes to Thousand Oaks. After a tough SCIAC campaign, senior day is on April 13. Cal Lutheran takes on Chapman at 11 a.m. The regular season finale for CLU is April 17 at La Verne at 4 p.m.
"We are looking forward to the challenges of this season," said Rond. "We want to grow as a unit in order to be the best possible team we can be going into and sustaining SCIAC competition."
The top four teams in the SCIAC go to the conference tournament. The SCIAC Tournament is set with the semifinals on April 26 and the SCIAC Championship on April 28.
2019 Schedule: Regals Water Polo
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Release by Ryan Jorgenson, Sports Information Director
