BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Rising sophomore Joelle Nacouzi (Montreal, Quebec, Canada/College Charlemagne) of Indiana University is among 14 players that will travel to Greece in preparation for the upcoming FINA World Women’s Junior Water Polo Championship on September 3-9 in Volos, Greece. The official 13 player roster will be released by Water Polo Canada on September 2.
A member of the 2015 Canadian Women’s Junior Team with current Hoosiers’ teammates Kelly Matthews (Sr., Roxboro, Quebec, Canada/St. Thomas) and Sarah Myers (Sr., Toronto, Ontario, Canada/Humberside) that finished in Fourth Place at the 2015 tournament, Nacouzi is coming off a freshman season in which she posted 37 goals, 30 assists, 40 steals and six field blocks in 31 games for Indiana. At the CWPA Championship, she earned Second Team All-Tournament honors as she finished with two goals in helping the host Hoosiers finish in Fifth Place.
In addition to her past World Junior Championship experience, Nacouzi also played on the 18U Canadian squad that battled to a silver medal at the FINA World Women’s Youth Championships in 2014.
She will have some familiar faces on the bench during the tournament as Andrew Robinson, her former club coach at Dollard-des-Ormeaux (DDO) from Quebec City, will serve as head coach for Team Canada.
In addition, former Indiana standout Brooke Zimmerman will serve as an assistant coach for Team Canada.
A 2008 Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) Honorable Mention selection as a senior in 2008, she set several record for goal goals and assists in a single season with 77 and 56, respectively, while finishing her career with 206 goals, 151 assists and 172 steals in 99 games.
During her senior season, she scored at least one goal in all but one of the team’s 36 games on the season and recorded multiple-goal games on 26 occasions. She also had a pair of five-goal games during her final season and finished her career with 206 goals, the third-most in a career at IU. Zimmerman also sits atop the career assists list with 151, which is 18 more than the next closest player. She was named to the CWPA All-Western Division team in each of her three seasons at Indiana (2006, 2007, 2008) and garnered First (2007) and Second (2008) Team All-CWPA Championship honors over her final two seasons in Bloomington.
Canada will compete in Group C alongside Italy, Serbia and Slovakia at the World Junior Championship.
Tournament play will begin on September 3 for Canada against Slovakia at 4:00 p.m. local/10:00 am Eastern. Competition continues on September 4 at 11:40 a.m. local/5:40 a.m. Eastern against Italy prior to facing Serbia on September 5 at 10:20 a.m. local/4:20 a.m. Eastern. A crossover game will occur on September 6 prior to the quarterfinals (September 7), semifinals (September 8) and finals (September 9).
