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NORTHRIDGE, Calif.—CSUN Water Polo head coach Matt Warshaw has unveiled the 2018 schedule consisting of five invitationals, five home matches, four matches with NCAA Tournament teams and at least nine contests with squads that finished in the Collegiate Water Polo Association Top 25 last season.

“The schedule has a great amount of competition that is designed to prepare us well for the Big West Conference,” said Warshaw. “The Michigan tournament this season will be a great experience for our team on the road, as well as the Aztec Invite and the Triton Invite.”

The Matadors begin the 2018 season at the UC Santa Barbara Winter Invite for the seventh-straight season with matches set for Azusa Pacific and Cal Baptist (Jan. 19) on day one followed by contests with a Top 10 team in Michigan and Fresno State a day later.

On Feb. 2, the Matadors head to Cal Lutheran to take on Carthage College and Cal State Monterey Bay before participating at UC San Diego’s Triton Invite from Feb. 10-11. At last year’s Triton Invite, the Matadors matched up with four Top 25 teams. A week later, the team matches up again with Azusa Pacific and competes against the University of Toronto (Feb. 17) to close the day.

CSUN wraps up the month of February with four matches at the always completive UC Irvine Invite from Feb. 23-25. The Matadors head to Ann Arbor, Mich. from March 3-4 to take on the host Michigan as well as Azusa Pacific, Iona and Bucknell.

CSUN opens up Big West Conference play on March 10 at Big West champion UC Irvine before heading to San Diego later that day for a date with UC San Diego as part of the Aztec Invite. At San Diego State, the Matadors will also face Harvard and Bucknell (March 11).

The home schedule kicks off on Friday, March 23 as CSUN hosts Cal State East Bay at Matador Pool. A day later, CSUN battles Hartwick and Redlands in two more home contests to close the non-conference portion of the schedule.

CSUN resumes Big West play the following week at Long Beach State (March 31) followed by its last regular season road match against UC Santa Barbara on April 7. The Matadors’ Big West home opener is set for Saturday, April 14 with UC Davis. A day later, CSUN will celebrate Senior Day with a Sunday matchup with Hawai’i to conclude the regular season.

The 2018 Big West Tournament will be held at UC Irvine this season from April 27-29.

Entering his second season with the Matadors, Warshaw led CSUN to a No. 19 national ranking to close of the 2017 campaign. The Matadors return 16 letterwinners from last season including a seven-member senior class.

Senior attacker Madeleine Sanchez heads into the 2018 season with an opportunity to make CSUN history as she needs 48 goals to break the school record for the most career goals scored. With 175 career tallies, Sanchez has scored 147 times over the last two seasons including racking up a career-high 74 last season. Sanchez also picked up a team-high 100 steals in 2017.

Among the returning group, senior Katelyn Fairchild recorded 48 goals and 64 steals while fellow senior Shannon Hovanesian led the team with 48 assists and registered 27 goals and 51 steals. In front of the cage, Niki Van Vugt collected 181 saves and posted a 9.48 goals-against-average in over 604 minutes.