Photo Courtesy: APU Sports Information
Azusa Pacific women’s swimming and diving will host Biola in the Cougars’ first home meet in program history Saturday morning.
The sport debuted in the 2008-09 season along with women’s water polo in an effort to expand opportunities for female athletes on campus. These were the first programs added since women’s tennis in 1998. Without on-campus aquatics facilities, each team has since acquired access to offsite pools.
Saturday’s meet will be held at a pool on the corner of East Fifth Street and Pasadena Avenue in Azusa, a half-mile from of East Campus. The pool is normally used by swimming and diving for practice, however, has been difficult to book for meets in the past because it is city-operated.
Water polo has used aquatic facilities at Citrus College in the past; however, the neighboring school is not able to accommodate swimming and diving in the fall.
Head coach Tim Kyle, who took over the program in the 2011-12 season after serving one season as an assistant coach, notes the significance of the home meet.
“Anytime that you can bring a sport onto campus and generate an environment for not only the team but for the university, it’s a big deal,” Kyle said. “I’ve been with these seniors since their first season at APU, so to finally have a home meet in their last season means a lot.”
APU is able to host this meet in part due to the help of Biola, which will be providing meet equipment, such as a timing system.
“We aren’t really capable of hosting a meet unless another university helps us,” Kyle said. “We’re getting there – it’s all a part of the process. We’re looking forward to hopefully hosting more in the future.”
For junior Erika Knudsen, the exclusive away-meet schedule was new upon coming to APU.
“I like traveling. The only down side is we don’t ever have a large support system at our meets because it’s the other team’s fans,” Knudsen said. “I miss that about home meets.”
Knudsen echoes Kyle’s hope to see a continuation of home meets going forward.