Rainbow Wahine land major Big West water polo awards

May 4—1/1

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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM

Alba Bonamusa Boix scores on April 13.

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Hawaii's undefeated run through the Big West water polo season resulted in seven players earning all-conference recognition on Friday.

Sophomore Bia Mantellato Dias was named the Big West Player of the Year for the second consecutive season and Maureen Cole earned her fifth Coach of the Year honor in her final season with the Rainbow Wahine.

Mantellato Dias led Hawaii with 61 goals and joined Irene Gonzalez as the only Hawaii players to earn the Big West Player of the Year award in back-to-back seasons.

"I'm really happy. It's an honor," Mantellato Dias said. "I think individual awards are not as important as to what our team has been doing."

Cole, who will retire following her 13th season as head coach, guided Hawaii to its highest seed ever in the National Collegiate Women's Water Polo Championship. UH (22-3) will open as the No. 2 seed against Princeton on Friday in Berkeley, Calif.

Junior Bernadette Doyle, who was named the Most Valuable Player in the Big West tournament, senior Alba Bonamusa Boix and freshman goalkeeper Daisy Logtens join Mantellato Dias on the eight-player, All-BWC first team.

Senior Lot Stertefeld made the second team and senior Lucia Gomez de la Puente earned honorable mention.

Logtens and Agatha Weston were voted to the All-Freshman team.

"All I can think about is the fact that I think every one of those players would trade any award to get some wins next week," Cole said. "They've obviously done a good job all year long. They deserve the recognition, but they would be the first ones to tell you that they are only getting that because of their teammates and we have played pretty solid as a team."

Bonamusa Boix, who led Hawaii with 88 points this season on 48 goals and 40 assists, earned All-BWC honors for the third time after making the first team last season and the second team as a sophomore.

Doyle, who led the conference with 47 steals, had 41 goals and 39 assists this season.

Logtens was the only freshman to make the All-BWC first team.