Tuesday, May 5, 1998
Goaltending
FEATURE: Senior water polo captain Nicolle Payne works hard en
route to national title, Olympic team opportunity
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Staff
A cage. Sacred, exposed and targeted.
A guard. Alert, fearless and anticipating.
Time and time again they attempt to penetrate, knowing very well
who they’re challenging.
Ever silent, never does she relent. Attack, and she will gladly
accept. But not without an unspoken warning. Her stern, focused
eyes speak for themselves – the offender is very likely to be left
in the disappointment of failure. If there’s one thing she does
best, one thing everyone can count on, it is this – time and time
again.
She denies and denies, then denies some more.
And they love her for it.
Nicolle Payne. Undoubtedly the best goalie in the country.
Two-time collegiate national champion. United States National team
member and Olympic hopeful.
And the list goes on, but you would never hear it coming out of
her mouth.
Soft-spoken, she is modest about her credentials. She has a
reputation for being whisper-quiet, if not shy.
That hasn’t kept her from being appointed team captain for four
straight years. She doesn’t need to holler to command attention.
Everyone on the team gives her utmost respect for her past
accomplishments, as well as what she’s still capable of. She’s the
favorite of many, including the coach.
All this is more than enough to swell anyone’s head. But she
resists the attitude of a pampered prima donna.
"Being team captain isn’t really a big thing," she shrugged off,
"not to take away from it or anything. In a team, everyone plays
and works hard, so I’m not any more special in having that
title."
"Still waters run deep, that’s how I would describe Nicolle,"
her coach Guy Baker said. "She has a quiet, shy persona, but she’s
extremely aggressive and competitive when it comes to water
polo."
Her performances in front of an audience, which includes a
goals-against-average of only 2.85, show only a fraction of her
persistent quality. It’s in the long hours of practice sessions,
far from glamorous, where one can truly see her persistent
nature.
Her philosophy is this: "You have to take one practice at a
time, and you have to put everything you can into that practice.
Try to get as much out of it as you can, because it goes by so fast
… you’re not going to be able to play like this forever."
That’s why she’s been the best for four years.
"Let me tell you a story about Nicolle," Baker said. "It was her
sophomore year and back then, San Diego State was one of our
biggest rivals. We played UCSD at a tournament preliminary and won.
But we didn’t play very well because it was the weekend right
before finals and a lot of the players were distracted. And Nicolle
was also off that day.
"The next morning was the day we were to play San Diego State in
the final. I get up early to exercise, and I’m looking out the
window of the hotel fitness room. And there’s Nicolle, in the hotel
pool, warming up and going over goalie stuff.
"That day, we ended up beating San Diego State badly, 8-2. She
didn’t need to do anything extra, but she did it. And that’s how
she is all the time."
Her love of the game keeps her coming back to the pool, day in
and day out. Even as a high schooler, Payne played on the boys’
team and drove herself an hour each way to her summer club
pool.
Defending the cage was an obvious choice. She was a soccer
goalie as a kid, and they needed a water polo goalie when she
switched sports. It just made sense.
Then the Senior National team wanted a goalie for practice.
Still in high school, Payne was allowed to train with the best and
further develop her skills.
Already accomplished before she even set foot in college, Payne
was on the most-wanted recruiting list. During the same year she
was a high school senior, UCLA OKd a varsity women’s water polo
program to be headed by men’s head coach Baker.
Even though Baker was well respected as the men’s coach, the
brand-new women’s team had no reputation to lure top recruits.
Still, she took a chance and decided to work with Baker to build a
team from the ground up.
"It was totally different from how it is now," she recalled. "A
lot of the members back then came from playing club water polo at
UCLA. We got fifth that year but it was great to build a program,
start traditions and watch it grow."
In more ways than one, Payne is a pioneer who led the team to
where it is now, on top. Minus all the success, she says the
essence of the team has always been the same.
"The team in terms of players has changed a lot but it’s always
been a great group of girls. Just being able to play and win with
all these girls is such a unique experience. And it goes by so
fast, so I’m just trying to enjoy every moment of it."
And guiding Payne through the four years since the team’s
conception was her coach. Baker has seen his athlete develop from
great to better. Since day one, they’ve been through the downs, and
more frequently, ups.
"She’s got all this and she hasn’t changed a bit," Baker said.
"She still has the same smile, just like when she was a freshman.
And she even gives the same roll of the eye sometimes, when I’m
kicking her butt in workouts. But she does it.
"I’m very fortunate to coach her," he continued. "She’s one of
my favorites and probably everyone knows that. She has such high
goals, high expectations of herself in what she wants to do, how
she wants to play the game. She demands of herself to reach that
level."
In women’s water polo, a player usually stops competing after
her college years. Payne, however, will play on as the starting
goalie on the National team, which is also coached by Baker. She is
far from retiring. In fact, she can only get better as she gains
more international experience.
"Nicolle’s one of the reasons why I wanted to coach the women’s
National team," Baker said. "I recently hired Chris Duplanty,
Olympic goalie in ’88, ’92 and ’96, as the women’s goalie coach.
He’s going to take Nicolle to an all-new level."
The new levels being the collegiate national championship and
beyond. In her final collegiate year, Payne will have her chance to
three-peat for UCLA at the championship tournament this weekend.
Then she’ll train with the National team in pursuit of the
Olympics. There’s no stopping her.
What motivates this consistent goal-blocking machine? It’s all
about loving what she does. Payne doesn’t need a complex,
philosophical reason to explain her attachment. It’s pure and
simple.
"Water polo is a great sport and I enjoy it," she says in her
usual, quiet voice. "It’s just fun."
PATIL ARMENIAN
Senior captain Nicolle Payne is one of the best women’s water
polo goalies in the nation.