March 11, 2010

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Maryland water polo team is scheduled to travel to San Diego this weekend where it will compete against a challenging field at the Aztec Invitational.

The nine-team, two-day tournament features four schools ranked in this week's College Water Polo Association poll, three of which will face the Terps (8-5).

Maryland opens play at 1 p.m. PT Saturday when it faces UC San Diego (4-12) which has won its last two games.

The competition gets stiffer for the Terps after that, however. Maryland will have to battle ninth-ranked Loyola Marymount (10-2) at 6 p.m. Saturday.

The Terps hope to get a better offensive effort at the Aztec Invite after being held to single-digit goals in two of three games at last weekend's Elite Eight Tournament. Maryland is 6-0 this season when scoring 10 or more goals.

Senior Shannon Simerly has a team-high 18 goals, but freshman Allison Campbell is closing the gap. Campbell had a career-high five goals in Saturday's 13-10 win over Harvard to give her 16 goals, second most on the team. She also has a team-best 29 points.

Sophomore Elina Goldenberg (20 points) and junior Meghan Powers (17 points) have also been key contributors on the offensive end.

Maryland will need a strong effort in both ends of the pool Sunday. The Terps will face tournament host and 14th-ranked San Diego State (10-7) at 11:45 a.m. before playing No. 3 California (14-5) at 3:30 p.m.