The women’s water polo team traveled to Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., and dominated the Heartland Regional Championship this past weekend, winning all of its games and taking home the regional title. This year marks the sixth time the Scots have won this championship in the past seven years.

Kate Larson ’05 led the way for a 10-7 victory in the Scots’ first match of the tournament against Carthage. Larson had four goals and three assists, while teammate Hayley Campbell ’04 had three goals. The women were aggressive on defense with Heather Lendway ’06 nabbing five steals and Elena Bulat ’07 snatching three. In goal Bulat also had an impressive ten saves for Macalester.

The Scots pulled off a huge 15-0 shutout in their second round game against Knox, Ill. Campbell, who scored four goals, was assisted by teammates Emma Hansen ’04, Cassie Hartblay ’06 and Lendway, who each had three goals. Campbell’s scores increased her career total to 119, one goal short of the school record. Campbell and Hartblay also contributed to the victory with a respective five and four steals each.

The team’s win against Knox secured them a place in the championship game against Wheaton, Ill. It was a closely contested game, with Wheaton leading 3-1 at halftime.

At the half the power suddenly went out, leaving the pool without lights for 25 minutes. While Wheaton wanted to continue playing despite the fact that there was only natural light, they seemed to overlook a minor consequence of the electricity problem: there was a huge glare which would have been in the Scots’ eyes during play! Perhaps Wheaton’s moral compass inhibited them from recognizing that which would inconvenience their Macalester opponents.

Regardless, after dealing with Wheaton’s flawed and biased logic, Macalester’s intellect and athleticism prevailed. Ultimately, play only resumed when the lights came back on, and when it did, the Scots showed Wheaton who the real boss is, handily regaining control of the competition. The game ended with Macalester on top of Wheaton, with a score of 5-4.

Jackie DeLuca ’07 and Larson led the team with two goals each. DeLuca also had three ejections drawn, increasing her season total to 49, a new Macalester record. Along with DeLuca’s super-tight defense, Lendway had six steals, Hartblay had four and Campbell had three. Bulat came up with another 10 saves in the championship game to help secure Macalester’s victory.

“This year’s Wheaton team was one of the strongest teams ever in our region,” Hansen said. “We made a great effort as a team and got the job done. As opposed to other years, this year everyone made really big contributions to the win, which is great for the team.”

The Scots will now advance to the Collegiate III National Tournament, April 30 in Santa Cruz, Cal.