Coyotes Berg earns WWPA accolades

Two-time NCAA Div. II all-American Freyja Berg and freshman goalkeeper Bryanna Burns have been voted to the all-Western Water Polo Association 2008 teams by a vote of the 12 coaches.

Berg earned first-team all-WWPA honors while Burns was named to the all-freshman team.

This is the first year that the WWPA has chosen both an all-association team and an all-tournament team. The latter will be named at the conclusion of the 2008 WWPA championship tournament on Sunday at Loyola Marymount University.

The Coyotes open the tournament as the No. 7 seed and will play UC Santa Cruz in the first round at 11 a.m. on Friday. If they win that match, they advance to the second round to play the host school and No. 2 seed, Loyola Marymount, at 4 p.m.

Berg  is tied for second in the nation in goals scored with 101 this season and her 3.1 goals per match average is No. 3 in the nation behind Amanda Ortiz of Cal State Bakersfield, the WWPA player of the year, and Billy Hoelck of Wagner (N.Y.).

In addition, the senior from Whittier (La Serna HS) has set a new Coyotes team record for career goals with 347, breaking the old career mark set by Sarah Reneker Schweiger at 324.

Berg scored seven goals against NCAA Division I UC Santa Barbara, ranked No. 17 in the nation, last weekend in a 13-12 overtime win by the Coyotes.

Burns has been a force in the cage for the Coyotes in her first year out of Rancho Buena Vista High School in Oceanside. She has 293 saves in 33 matches, averaging 8.9 saves per match, ranking her seventh in the nation, according to statistics compiled by Niall Adler of Long Beach State.

Veronica Campbell of Cal State Bakersfield was named newcomer of the year and Jamey Wright of WWPA leader UC Davis was named coach of the year.

The seedings for the WWPA tournament are: 1. UC Davis; 2. LMU; 3. UCSD; 4. CS Bakersfield; 5. Santa Clara; 6. Sonoma State; 7. COYOTES; 8. Cal State Monterey Bay; 9. Colorado State; 10. UC Santa Cruz; 11. Cal State East Bay; 12. Chapman.

 

 

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