(Bridgeport, PA) Yesterday afternoon the Collegiate Water Polo Association released the 2022 ACWPC All-American teams, and the Sun Devils were highlighted by Vanda Baksa who earned Second Team recognition and Amira Van Buren who received an Honorable Mention nod. The selections were picked by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches and are selected based on nominations and voting by the head coaches of each varsity program.
Baksa and Van Buren were the lone Sun Devils in a pool of 80 student athletes– an increase from the 62 All-Americans last season.
Baksa officially caps off her record-breaking freshman campaign with an ACWPC recognition after being named MPSF Newcomer of the Year, which was the program’s first, and highest, major individual honor.
After putting up All-American numbers all season Baksa led the conference in goals (73), assists (49), points (122), and was consistently top three in steals (35) and field blocks (21) all season. In a conference full of Olympians, Baksa was out playing them nearly all season. Baksa took down the Sun Devil freshman goals record, and is six away from the MPSF’s all-time top-30 in single-season history. Her scoring streak stands at 17-straight games, and she has scored in 24 of ASU’s 25 contests, including 16 hat tricks, 10 of which came in the 17 game scoring streak. On February 27, Baksa tallied a 2022 conference-high eight goals against Indiana which was a single-game program record. On March 12, she tallied school records of 10 points and seven assists– those seven assists and 10 points another single-game record in the program. She won a conference-high six weekly awards, all coming in the final eight weeks of the season.
Van Buren’s third All- American honor of her career comes after one of her best seasons in the Maroon and Gold. Her two other All-American nods were for Second Team, most recently coming after last season’s NCAA run.
She notched 37 goals this season on 71 shots (.529), which ties her single-season high when she had 37 goals in 2020. Her 52.9 shooting percentage is the second highest on the team behind Baksa’s 55.3%. At center this season, Van Buren has had 11 field blocks including the game-ending field block against IU to close out the regular season with a win. She has drawn 26 exclusions which led the team.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Claudia Schwartz
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