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| Born | July 15, 1976 Paramount, California |
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Nicolle Katherine Payne (born July 15, 1976) is an American water polo player. The goalkeeper was a member of the US teams that won the silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Payne, a three-year water polo letterman at Gahr High School in Cerritos, California, gained additional water polo experience as a starter on the 1995 U.S. Junior National Team that earned a gold medal at the Pan American Games.[ dubious – discuss ] Payne earned first-team all-league, team MVP, and All-California Interscholastic Federation honors.
Payne was the first woman recruited onto UCLA's new Title IX women's water polo team in 1994. [1] In the 1996 season, she recorded 175 saves and a 3.07 goals against average (GAA). Payne was chosen as the National Player of the Year as a freshman. Nicolle Payne was hurt early in the 1997 season with a herniated disk and a strained vertebra, but she later returned to accumulate a 4.22 GAA in 72 quarters of play. The All-American goalkeeper captained the Bruin team from 1995–1998 and was a member of three national championship teams from 1996 to 1998. Payne finished her career at UCLA with her third national championship in 1998, with 13 saves in the final game. Her 2.77 GAA and 225 saves remain UCLA records. Payne graduated from UCLA in 1998 with a degree in Biology.
On October 9, 2009, Payne was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame. [1]
Payne played in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and helped the U.S. bring home the silver medal. As goalkeeper for Team USA, she appeared in all seven games and recorded 19 saves, including eight against both Canada and Australia. At the 2003 FINA World Championships, her team won the gold medal. In the 2004 Olympic games in Athens, Payne was a member of the bronze medal women's water polo team.
In 2001, Payne served as assistant coach for the U.S. Junior National team when it captured the Junior National title in a 10-9 overtime victory over Australia. In 2006, Nicolle Payne began her fourth year as assistant coach for the UCLA women's water polo program. She was previously a UCLA assistant coach in the 2005, 2002 and 2001 seasons.
In February 2007, Payne was inducted into the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) Hall of Fame with fellow Olympic medalists Natalie Golda and Heather Moody. The three women were members of the bronze medal 2004 U.S. Olympic team in Athens, and are the first women added to the NYAC Hall of Fame.
In April 2023, Payne was inducted into the 39th annual USA Water Polo Hall of Fame. [2] The induction was alongside another Olympic medalist, Coralie Simmons, water polo coach, Ron Richison, Olympic silver medalist Peter Varellas, and Olympic Games referee, Aaron Chaney. [2]
Brenda Villa is an American accomplished water polo player. She is the most decorated athlete in the world of women’s water polo. Villa was named Female Water Polo Player of the Decade for 2000-2009 by the FINA Aquatics World Magazine. She is one of four female players who competed in water polo at four Olympics; and one of two female athletes who won four Olympic medals in water polo. She is a leading goalscorer in Olympic water polo history, with 31 goals. In 2018, she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame.
Coralie Denise Simmons is an American water polo player, who won the silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. In 2001, she won the Peter J. Cutino Award, presented annually to the top American collegiate water polo player. Simmons is currently in her third season as the women's water polo coach at the University of California, Berkeley, after nine seasons as the head coach at Sonoma State University. She was born in Hemet, California.
Heather Danielle Petri is an American water polo player who won the silver medal with the US women's national team at the 2000 Summer Olympics, a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics, a silver medal in Beijing in 2008 and a gold medal in London 2012. She is one of four female players who competed in water polo at four Olympics and one of two female athletes who won four Olympic medals in water polo. Her position is attacker.
Heather Moody is an American water polo player, who won a silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. She was team captain of the US Women's National Team that captured the bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and the only member of the team not from California. Her position is center forward.
Robin Mary Beauregard is an American water polo player, who won the silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. She also won a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Beauregard plays the position of center defender.
Ellen Marie Estes is an American water polo player, who won the silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. She also won a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Estes scored three goals during the bronze medal game against Australia.
Natalie Golda is a former American water polo player and currently the head coach of the newly formed Fresno State Bulldogs water polo team to begin competition in 2018. Considered one of the greatest women's water polo players of all time, her senior leadership helped guide the 2005 UCLA Bruins to their seventh national championship. In May 2005 Golda received the Peter J. Cutino Award, given to the best player in women's collegiate water polo. She was also a member of the US Water Polo Team that won the bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In 2015, she was inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame.
Jacqueline "Jackie" Frank DeLuca Cochran is an American water polo goalkeeper, 2004 bronze medal Olympian and two-time collegiate National Player of the Year.
Margaret "Margie" Dingeldein is an American water polo player who won a bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Her position is attacker, and she is considered an excellent perimeter shooter.
Kelly Kristen Rulon is an American water polo player. She won a gold medal with the United States at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the water polo competition. She is also a bronze medalist from the 2004 Summer Olympics. Her position is driver.
Thalia Janina Ormbsy (Munro) (born March 8, 1982, in Santa Barbara, California) is an American water polo player for the UCLA Bruins and the US National Team, who won the bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Her position is utility/driver. She now is a 6th grade teacher.
Elizabeth Anne "Betsey" Armstrong is an American water polo goalkeeper, who won gold medals with the United States women's national water polo team at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2007 and 2011 Pan American Games, and 2007 and 2009 world championships. She is a leading goalkeeper in Olympic water polo history, with 102 saves. Armstrong attended Huron High School in Ann Arbor and was a three-year letterwinner on her water polo team. She then went on to graduate from the University of Michigan in 2005, where she was the goalkeeper for the women's water polo team. Betsey graduated with a bachelor's degree in English language and Literature. She is currently the record holder at University of Michigan with 350 saves.
Kenneth Monfore "Monte" Nitzkowski was an American former competition swimmer, and water polo competitor for the University of California at Los Angeles, and a Hall of Fame water polo coach for Long Beach City College from 1952-1989, where he led his teams to 32 conference water polo championships in 34 years. He served as a U.S. Olympic Water Polo team coach in 1968, 1972, 1980, and 1984, and was a Pan American Games coach for the U.S. team four times.
Courtney Lynn Kaiulani Mathewson is an American water polo player, part of the US team that won the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics. She played water polo for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Bruins during their four-consecutive NCAA National Champion Women's Water Polo championships, and was named to the All-Tournament first team. At UCLA, she majored in sociology.
Brandon Brooks, who played water polo as a goalie for UCLA and the 2004 and 2008 United States National teams, was the head coach of the women's water polo team at UCLA until 2017. The women's team won the 2008 and 2009 NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship, and one of his players, Courtney Mathewson, captured the Peter J. Cutino Award as the player-of-the year in 2008.
Guy Baker was the head coach for the United States women's national water polo team competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. He is now the Director Of Olympic Development of USA Water Polo. Baker had guided the team to a silver medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics, a bronze medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics, and a silver medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics, becoming one of the most successful water polo coaches in Olympic history. In 2018, he was inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame.
Merrill M. Moses is a United States Olympic silver medalist, three-time Olympian, and three-time Pan American Games gold medalist water polo goalkeeper. He played college water polo for Pepperdine University, where he was an All-American and helped lead the team to the 1997 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. Moses is now associate head coach in water polo at Pepperdine.
Robert "Bob" Martin Horn was a collegiate swimmer and Water Polo Player for Fullerton College and Long Beach State, who as the first full-time UCLA swimming and Water Polo Coach from around 1964-1991 led the Bruins to 3 NCAA Water Polo Championships in 1969, 1970-72, and 7 Water Polo PAC-8 league championships from 1964-1971. He represented the United States in Water Polo as an outstanding goalie in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne and the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
Jill Ann Sterkel is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, former world record-holder, and water polo player. Sterkel won four medals in three Olympic Games spanning twelve years from 1976 through 1988. She was the women's head coach of the Texas Longhorns swimming and diving team at the University of Texas at Austin from 1993 to 2006.
Ashley Grossman is a water polo player. She has competed as a member of the United States women's national water polo team, for both the U.S. Junior and Senior National Teams, including as Team USA won a gold medal in water polo at the 2015 Pan American Games.
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