BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Former Washington University in St. Louis men’s collegiate club water polo athlete Alex Figueras, who assumed varsity women’s water polo head coaching duties at McKendree University on January 16, was named the 2025 Division II co-Coach of the Year by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC).
He guided the Bearcats to a historic 21-8 season, including a 3-1 mark in Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) competition. Figueras helped McKendree snag its inaugural WWPA title in women’s water polo and National Collegiate Atheltic Association (NCAA) National Collegiate Water Polo Championship appearance.
Coinciding with his duties at McKendree, Figueras – who joined the Bearcats’ staff in 2023 – has been an integral part of the nearby St. Louis Area Polo (SLAP) as the High School Girls program coach. He was also a player for the SLAP organization for over 10 years before playing collegiately.
Along with SLAP, he was the assistant coach for the 18U Boys Junior Olympic Team. He received a gold medal with the Team in 2023, and USA Water Polo also recognized Figueras in 2024 as the Midwest Zone’s Scholastic Women’s Coach. Recently in 2024, he was a co-head coach for the 18U Girls Junior Olympic Team
Figueras started his collegiate playing career in 2018 at Pitzer College (part of Pomona-Pitzer Athletics), where he helped the Sagehens reach as high as No. 15 in the national Men’s Varsity Top 20 poll and a berth in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament after winning the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) with a 24-9 overall record while going a perfect 14-0 in conference play. Figueras also earned Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-Academic honors that year.
Figueras then went on to attend Washington University in St. Louis for the last four years of his career from 2019-2022 as he was named captain of the institution’s men’s collegiate club team. In his time with the Bears, he was a Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) All-America honorable mention in 2021.
He also led WashU to a third-place finish at the 2021 National Collegiate Club Championship as the Bears posted the highest finish by a Division III institution at the event.
Figueras earned his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business Administration for majoring in marketing and in English from Washington University in St. Louis in 2022.
The 2025 WWPA Coach of the Year, he shares the award with late head coach Colleen Lischwe. Lischwe, who passed away on January 15 due to an automobile accident in the lead-up to the 2025 women’s varsity season, led the women’s program to 82 wins and the men’s program to 64 victories for a total of 146 wins across both programs.
After serving as the program’s graduate assistant coach in its inaugural year, she was named the head coach for the women’s water polo program in February 2017 and assumed leadership of the men’s program in June of 2018.
The only female head coach of a men’s NCAA water polo program when she assumed the role, she helped lead McKendree to rank among the best Division II programs on both the collegiate club and varsity levels during her tenure in Lebanon, Ill.
On the women’s side, in her first season with McKendree, Lischwe was selected as the 2017 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Midwest Division Collegiate Club Coach of the Year. She took over the reins of the program as head coach in February 2017 and led the Bearcats to their first Midwest Division Championship match.
The following season, Lischwe lead the Bearcats to a 9-16 record and a Seventh Place finish at the 2018 WWPA Championship in the program’s season as a varsity team. She also coached Emily Westlove to the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-America honors during the team’s first season in the varsity ranks.
In 2019, Lischwe helped the Bearcats to an 11-15 record and a Ninth Place mark in the WWPA. Prior to the start of the 2020 season, Lischwe was awarded the Sandy Nitta Distinguished Coaching Award by USA Water Polo for her work developing women’s water polo at the collegiate level.
In 2020, McKendree went 4-10 before the season was upended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in early March and in 2021, the team posted a 2-7 mark in another abbreviated campaign.
The 2022 team won a school record 16 games and finished with a 16-7 overall record, which was the program’s first-ever winning record, while taking Fourth Place at the WWPA Championship. The team had three WWPA All-Conference selections and Sydney Kane was named to the WWPA All-Freshman Team.
In 2023, the Bearcats went 17-9 with a Fifth Place finish at the WWPA Championship to help Abigail Burton and Jaleh Moaddeli earn All-America accolades. Most recently, she steered the team to a Fourth Place at the WWPA Championship, a 14-11 mark and an All-America achievement for Joey Rebelo in 2024.
Her success was equaled with the men’s team.
After serving as assistant coach to the men’s program for its first two seasons, Lischwe became head coach of the team in June 2018 and delivered the team’s most successful season in program history as the squad claimed its first winning season with a 15-13 record. During her first season at the helm, Lischwe earned the 2018 Coach of the Year Award at the CWPA Division II Championships hosted in Lebanon, Ill., and was presented with the Dick Russell Coach of the Year Award at the 2018 MAWPC-West Conference Championship hosted at the Hallman Aquatics Center in Erie, Pa .
At the MAWPC-West Championship, she helped the Bearcats top Washington & Jefferson College (18-8 W), snap a 20-game winning streak by Gannon University (12-9 W) and clip Salem University (13-12 W) to take the team’s first championship in the program’s inaugural MAWPC-West Championship appearance. In addition, she coached Joseph Mahan to earn the program’s first men’s All-America award.
At the MAWPC Championship hosted by Fordham University in the Bronx, N.Y., Lischwe guided McKendree to a Seventh Place finish versus predominantly Division I competition as the squad faced George Washington University (16-6 L), Johns Hopkins University (18-6 L) and La Salle University (15-7 W).
The 2018 Monte Nitzkowski Distinguished Coaching Award for the Midwest Zone by USA Water Polo, she helped McKendree take Third Place at the 2019 CWPA Division II Championship and finish second at the MAWPC-West Championship (15-14 L to Gannon) to wrap-up the year with an 11-5 mark to accompany All-America honors for both Mahan and Matthew Haygood.
During the 2020/2021 season – which was contested during the Winter of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic – she led the Bearcats to their second MAWPC-West Championship as the team topped Washington & Jefferson College (26-9 W), Mercyhurst University (15-9 W) and Gannon (21-8 W) to cap off a 7-0 season. For her performance, Lischwe was recognized by her peers with honors as the MAWPC-West Championship Coach of the Tournament, while Haygood was named the Player of the Tournament and repeated as an All-America selection.
McKendree’s 2021 men’s team went 11-9 overall and was 4-0 in the MAWPC-West Division to repeat as the regular season champion. At the MAWPC Tournament, the Bearcats finished as the runners-up to Gannon (15-13 L) and had five All-Conference selections to go along with a pair of All-America nods for Uros Pelemis and Michael Rojas.
In 2022, the team went 8-19, took Third Place at the CWPA Division II Championship and garnered a Seventh Place finish at the MAWPC Championship hosted by Fordham as the Bearcats faced Gannon (16-11 W), Fordham (15-6 L), Wagner College (15-14 L OT) and Johns Hopkins (13-8 W). Three McKendree athletes earned All-America nods as the conclusion of the campaign as Breno Tebet, Josh Carlson and Nico Rodriguez claimed laurels.
Prior to the 2023 season, McKendree joined with Salem, Mercyhurst and Gannon to join the Division II WWPA.
During the team’s inaugural season in the WWPA, the squad finished 9-14 with a Fourth Place finish at home during the league championship tournament prior to Tebet repeating on the ACWPC All-America list.
This past fall, the Bearcats posted a 2-18 mark and a Sixth Place finish at the WWPA Championship. Yannick Robertson received All-America notice for his efforts during the 2024 season.
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