TEMPE, Ariz. – No. 11 Arizona State water polo brought in nine freshmen on its roster for the 2026 season, over a third of its roster. The Malmsten Invitational was the first opportunity for head coach Petra Pardi to assess how the freshmen would perform, as they had five games to determine how they would gel.
“I was very nervous at (the) beginning of the offseason what it would look like for us to have so many new faces on the team,” Pardi said.
Those freshmen had 25 of 88 Arizona State’s (5-0) goals as the Sun Devils won all five of their games beating Cal Baptist (3-2), No. 7 Loyola Marymount (4-1), McKendree (0-4), No. 17 Michigan (0-5) and No. 13 UC San Diego (4-1) by scores of 16-7, 17-15, 24-6, 16-7 and 15-12 respectively.
Laura Kardos and Camelia Bouloukbachi led the freshman scoring with six goals apiece on the weekend, with Iris Vreeling and Dominika Kardos close behind with five each. Maci Magee rounded out the freshman scoring with three goals and nine assists.
Laura Kardos had a four-goal game against McKendree, and Bouloukbachi had two hat tricks on the weekend. Dominika Kardos had a team-leading 12 assists as well.
“I’m very happy with how they played this entire tournament, and actually a couple of them really surprised me,” Pardi said. “They outperformed what my expectations were.”
Vreeling was one of the players who outperformed Pardi’s expectations, with a performance that included a hat trick against Michigan. The other was freshman Sydney Krushen, as both players earned praise on the defensive side of the ball from Pardi.
Senior attacker Millie Quin was the only Sun Devil to score in every game, totalling 25 goals, with four hat tricks. This high bar should not come as a surprise, as she had 89 goals last season, a team high.
Quin had 10 assists as well. She had a team leading three field blocks on the weekend. Quin had the most field blocks on the team last year with 15.
“She (Quin) can just flip a switch when we need her the most, and she gets the job done both offensively and defensively,” Pardi said. “She’s the best lead that we’ve had in a long time; she truly leads by example.”
Sophomore attacker Itziar Almeda scored 11 goals and six assists in the invitational. Almeda led the team in assists (46) and was second in goals (71) last season.
Graduate transfer Nioka Thomas had a nice Sun Devil debut, scoring eight times on the weekend. She picks up right where she left off, as she scored 48 goals for UC Irvine last season.
Senior center Sophie Shorter-Robinson found the back of the net six times. She was the Sun Devils' third-highest goal scorer last season behind Quin and Almeda, and should have a presence this year.
Junior attacker Kat Featherstone had five goals, four of which found the back of the net against McKendree, where she also had seven steals. Sophomore attacker Leila Meraz scored twice and put up six assists.
Both goalkeepers saw action in the tournament and were fairly good. Senior goalkeeper Sanne Keijzer went 3-0 with a 53.0 save percentage. Keijzer had 10 steals, the most of all Sun Devils.
Sophomore goalkeeper Keri Glad had a 63.2 save percentage and went 2-0. Both goalkeepers had the opportunity to come in for relief for the other when the team was behind and played well enough for the Sun Devils to take the win.
“She’s (Keijzer) still recovering from a shoulder injury, so we knew that she wasn’t going to be 100%,” Pardi said. “Sanne (Keijzer) was the one (who said) ‘hey, let Keri (Glad) go, she’s got it (midway through UCSD).’”
The Sun Devils dominated against McKendree, Cal Baptist and Michigan, getting off to fast starts against the Lancers and Wolverines before slowing down. The game against McKendree was close to start, but the Sun Devils pulled away in the second quarter.
The game against LMU was back and forth before the Sun Devils pulled away in the fourth quarter, swapping Glad for Keijzer in at goalie. Against UCSD, the Sun Devils fell behind early and clawed their way back after a goalie swap of Keijzer for Glad in the second quarter, showing resiliency.
“I’m very proud of Sanne (Keijzer) for being so mature about it, and her being the one realizing that she needed to get subbed out,” Pardi said.
Arizona State’s shooting percentage was 53.0, while it held opponents to 32.9%. The Sun Devils outshot every team they played except Michigan and outshot their combined opponents 166-143. They had a better shooting percentage in every game compared to their opponents.
Arizona State went 9-for-33 (27.2%) on the power play. Its opponents went 11-for-36 (30.6%).
The Sun Devils won 10 of 20 sprints. They won the turnover battle 74 to 34 throughout the weekend and were active on defense, stealing more balls than all the opponents they faced except LMU, with whom they had the same amount. They outblocked all of their opponents except CBU, with a weekend total of 14 to seven.
“Very happy with the 5-0, that was what we set out as the goal for the weekend,” Pardi said.
The Sun Devils visit UC San Diego next weekend for the Triton Invitational, a tournament-style event, facing off against No. 17 Michigan, the winner of No. 3 UCLA and Cal State Fullerton, and two others based on in-tournament results.
“We still have to work on a couple things,” Quin said. “No matter the opponent, we need to (have) our foot on the throttle.”