To start off what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, the women's water polo team won all four of its games at NAU this past weekend.

The Wildcats (4-0) blew out Colorado School of Mines 14-0 and Colorado State's B team 18-3 on Saturday. Sunday, the games were closer and the UA had to overcome deficits. After trailing 3-0, Arizona beat Colorado State's A team 14-6 and edged the host Lumberjacks 14-13.

"We played really well," said head coach Jeff Whitmore. "This is actually the second year of rebuilding, we're taking a lot of new people on."

The Wildcats began a rivalry with NAU after Arizona beat them 2-1 in 2001 for the division title.

"It was a great feeling, everyone was cheering and singing ĪBear Down,'" senior two meter set Rochelle Perper said. "It was so awesome to beat them." The UA bench was louder at times than the NAU fans, she added.

The UA was led by senior goalie Pam Morlock and freshmen Julie Voorehees and Jessica West.

"Pam Morlock made some huge saves and blocked some shots very few goalies could," Whitmore said.

Whitmore said he was also surprised at how quickly the team, with a number of freshmen, bonded.

"Several players were playing water polo for the first time," Perper said. "They were very brave."

Whitmore said he expects the Wildcats, who were unranked in earlier polls before this past weekend's games, to soon be ranked.

The Wildcats play next in Utah at the end of the month.

Women's Rugby falls to UCSD

A week after losing to women's rugby power UC San Diego, Arizona lost to them again this past weekend, this time 24-0.

The Wildcats (4-4) traveled to San Diego to face the Tritons after losing to them 22-7 on Feb. 9, but were unable to gain revenge and were forced to accept a shutout.

Playing UCSD twice in a row was not the hard part of the match, said junior eight man Amanda Davis. The difficulties came rather from traveling to San Diego twice in just two weeks.

"We just didn't have our heads in the game," Davis said.

Davis said she felt Arizona, who was without its head coach for the match, wasn't able to push the Tritons away as well as they had week before.

"They just had stronger scrums," Davis said. "We didn't have solid tackling."

Rugby Magazine has the Tritons ranked No. 1 in Southern California. Arizona is currently ranked fourth.

The Wildcats will have a bye this week before playing in a tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz. Their next home match is against UC Santa Barbara on March 8.