Santa Barbara Water Polo Club’s 18U Girls team will embark on the club’s bi-annual Holland Trip on Thursday. Led by coaches Cathy Neushul, Connor Levoff, and Siena Van Alphen the team will spend Spring Break training with the Dutch Senior and Junior National Teams at the KNVB Sportzenter in Zeist.
The Holland roster includes Britten Vilander (Dos Pueblos HS), Amanda Longan (Oaks Christian HS), Betsy Hendrix (Santa Barbara HS), Shannon Cleary (Dos Pueblos HS), Ari St. Oegger (Dos Pueblos HS), Toni Shackelford (Dos Pueblos HS), Frannie Kuesis (San Marcos HS), Jordan Williams (Dos Pueblos HS), Kaybree Albright (Righetti HS), Kristina Garcia (Santa Barbara HS), Ryann Neushul (Goleta Valley JR High), and Abbi Hill (Providence).
The Dutch women won the 2008 Olympic Gold Medal in Beijing and have long tradition of outstanding women’s water polo. Most recently, the Oranje had a strong showing at the 2013 U.S. Holiday Cup with victories over Australia, Russia, and Canada. Santa Barbara’s team can expect some very physical play in Holland that will include competition against past and future Dutch Olympians. This is club’s third trip to compete in the Netherlands. The trip is an opportunity for SB’s 18U girls to prepare themselves for the next level of competition.
Santa Barbara Water Polo’s Holland will be interspersed with a visit to Palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn along with games against Dutch clubs at Warande, Utrecht, Barendrecht, and Gouda. The last two days of the Dutch trip will be spent in Amsterdam where the girls are staying on a large sailboat docked in Central Amsterdam and touring the city with visits to Anne Frank’s house and the Van Gogh Museum along with a canal boat tour.
