Bucknell Announces 2009 Women's Water Polo Schedule

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell University women's water polo team will seek to again qualify for the Eastern Championship and make a run at the league's automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship as the team announced its schedule for the 2009 season.

The squad will open the season on January 23-25 at the University of Michigan Kick-Off Tournament before hitting the road to Princeton, New Jersey on February 7 to battle Mercyhurst College and Villanova University at the Princeton Open.

Following a Southern Division game on February 15 at the University of Maryland, the Bison will stampede back to the Garden State to compete in the Princeton Invitational on February 21-22.

After hosting the Elite Six Tournament on February 28-March 1 featuring the University of Michigan, Hartwick College, Princeton, Maryland and Harvard University, Bucknell will return to the road and Southern Division play against George Washington University in Washington, D.C. on March 5.

The next week will feature a massive West Coast swing as the orange and blue will compete in the California State University-Santa Barbara Invitational (March 7-8) before taking on California State University-Santa Barbara (March 9), California State University-Northridge (March 11), Occidental College (March 11), Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (March 13) and Arizona State University (March 13) in single games.

Bucknell will wrap-up the trip on March 14 at the Claremont Convergence before returning to the East Coast to wrap-up the Southern Division regular season schedule.

On the heels of a league game at Princeton (March 28), the Bison will return home to take on Princeton (April 3), George Washington (April 4) and Maryland (April 4) to conclude the Southern Division regular season slate.  The team will conclude the regular season schedule a day later as Western Division power Indiana University comes to Lewisburg on April 5.

The postseason will begin on April 18 as Bucknell, Princeton and George Washington travel to Maryland for the Southern Division Championship.  If the Bison finish first or second in the championship, the team will automatically qualify for the Eastern Championship on April 24-26 at Harvard University.  However, a third place finish at the championship will drop the Bison into the at-large pool as the top two teams from the Northern, Southern and Western divisions, and two at-large teams, will meet at Harvard for the Eastern title.

If the Bison capture the Eastern title and earn the CWPA's automatic berth to the NCAA Championship on May 8-10, Bucknell will travel to Maryland for the third time as the Terrapins will serve as host of the season's penultimate event.