Bear Insider Video: Cal Women's Water Polo Players Madison Tagg and Rachael Lewin

With the 2018 water polo season in full swing, junior Madison Tagg, and her teammate, junior Rachael Lewin, are excited to use the great coaching, players, and talent of the Golden Bear women's water polo squad to the best of their abilities. With Tagg as a goalkeeper, and Lewin as a utility player, they both hold crucial roles in the team’s success.

As many may find unusual, Tagg is joined at Cal with her twin brother, Spencer. The twins attended Campolindo High, where they played in the same program for four years. Because they also share the same position at goalie for their respective programs, they are able to help each other out as they both continue their careers.

“I think that it helps a lot, not only in the water, but in school as well. We took a lot of the same classes freshman year and we would always go over the stuff we needed to learn. As we were studying, we would always talk about waterpolo and be like, ‘Oh you were out of position during that play’. I also will always get snapchats after the game of him watching it on TV so it’s a big support system,” said Tagg.

As a goalkeeper, Tagg has one of the most important positions in the pool. Some compare being a goalkeeper to being a quarterback. Having the best view of the pool, her role is to lead the team vocally, directing them on defense and on offense. She also must use her strength to the best of her ability at all times, whether it is lunging side to side, swimming outside the cage, or getting her hips high out of the water to stop a shot. On the other hand, the position is a mental game and Tagg recognizes the importance of that, as well.

“Goalie as a position is very mental. I think that you can train physically to get to that point in the game, but I think you mostly have to rely on composure, which is all mental,” said Tagg.

Lewin, as a utility player, has a totally different role in the pool. Utility players are most often very versatile and are capable of and skilled at several offensive and defensive roles. Lewin used this position to her advantage, contributing greatly to her team by scoring 18 goals last season.

“Last year was really fun. We got a new coach, and with that I tried to find my role on the team. One of the roles that I picked up was being more of a utility player, which allowed me to score goals and I think everyone will agree that scoring goals is always fun. It was really nice to be able to be a contributing factor last year,” said Lewin.

The Bears women’s water polo squad are extremely lucky to be coached by Coralie Simmons, who is said to be one of the greatest female American water polo players in history. In her former career as a player, Simmons led her US team to winning the silver medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics. The girls both look up to her knowledge grealty.

“We both have been in the Olympic Development Program for such a long time and once, there was a training camp that she was at. I had no idea who she was until she starting coaching us. Then I got to know who she was, and we ended up hearing that she got the head coaching job at Cal.

During the short time that I had with her during the ODP program, I really admired her coaching style. When she got the job here, she just fit with the whole team and she really understood what we needed out of her and what she needed out of us,” said Tagg.

“I think for me, having two female coaches that have been in the Olympics and are so worldly-known, is pretty cool. Growing up in the waterpolo community, it is super small, so you kind of know everyone. Now being on the pool deck and being taught by two great coaches with her and (former Olympian) Heather Petri, it’s like a dream. Sometimes you forget about it because it’s just so common that they are there everyday, but it is pretty phenomenal to be a part of and that’s what the Bear family offers you,” said Lewin.

Both girls come from a very strong and competitive program at Campolindo High School in Moraga, California. Throughout those high school years, they were surrounded with tons of D1 talent not only in water polo, but in other sports as well, as Campolindo fosters great athletics all around.

“I think our community as a whole pushed this, ‘You are going to play water polo in college,’ thing and some people just don’t react to that kind of pressure well. Having a team that had great upperclassmen that did end up really enjoying college water polo, pushed us to want to make that decision to go play somewhere. I think there were 30 people overall that signed to go to a D1 school (from Campolindo) my year. We ended up both coming here because of what they offered us and they offered us a great Cal Bear family and that’s what we wanted, just like Campo,” said Tagg.

“I think that Campo is pretty good athletically. If you take a look at their water polo program, football, whatever it may be, their sports are definitely high up there. I think that coming from that program to here has been pretty cool because both programs are super-competitive. The Campolindo family has many things to offer and one of them is athletics so it’s fun being able to follow everyone’s athletic careers post graduation,” said Lewin.

As well as playing on the same high school team, the girls also played on the same club team at 680 Drivers Water Polo. Because of this, they know each other’s game extremely well now, which has helped in their college careers.

“As a goalie, you rely in your shot blockers, where you are going to pass the ball, and who’s going to crash after than the other person. I think that knowing how she plays has definitely helped my game,” said Tagg.

“It’s really nice to be able to know someone that your playing with, what they are good at, and what you can say. There is a physical and mental side of the game. I think that we do a good job at helping each other whenever we need to,” said Lewin.

This weekend, Cal is hosting the MPSF (Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) Women’s Water Polo Tournament. Schools such as Stanford, UCLA, USC, etc. will all create some tough competition in the water. The girls are ready to put their talent to work with the advantage of being at home.

“We have some good competition. It’s the first time in a while that this conference tournament has been here, so we are going to use that to our advantage. We will have our home stands with all the fans there so we will be good,” said Tagg.

“I am excited. As far as what we are expecting, I think that we have really been trying to finite some things in the water so we want to be able to just put those to practice and overall have a really good and fun weekend,” said Lewin.