After four hard-fought years as a Triton, Sydney Gstettenbauer, one of UCSD’s most prolific athletes, will receive her diploma and leave the team this spring. Following her successful career on the women’s water polo team, the Ventura, Calif., native will graduate with a degree in environmental systems. Her graduation forces the team to make up for her tremendous production over the past four years.
Gstettenbauer wasn’t always a swimmer. As a child, she refused to take swim lessons. Finally, she decided to hop into the water and start swimming. Still, Gstettenbauer doesn’t classify herself as a swimmer ‘mdash; only a water polo player who is forced to swim.
Gstettenbauer ran track for four years before she even heard of water polo, and only left the track because of tendonitis she developed as a result of the high jump. Fortunately for the Tritons, a friend told her about water polo and she quickly fell in love despite her aversion to swimming. Her first experience with the sport came from a class she took at her local community college in eighth grade. She joined a club team soon afterward.
When Gstettenbauer played in high school, her primary position was two-meter defender. It was her responsibility to cover the biggest, strongest person in the pool and shut them out; a responsibility that typically gets assigned to taller players because of their great reach. She loved her role on defense, and never desired to be a superstar on offense. Through the course of her four years in high school, she grew more and more infatuated with the sport, but never developed the same love for swimming, even after her coach instituted mandatory swim times for the team.
‘I never could make any of those swimming times,’ Gstettenbauer said with a chuckle. ‘They were instituted when I was already on the team, but if I hadn’t been on the team at the time, I never would have made the team.’
Toward the end of her high-school career, Gstettenbauer realized she might not play water polo in college. During the application process, Gstettenbauer did not consider water polo as a criterion for college, but when she heard about UCSD’s women’s water polo team, she considered playing. Even though she was never recruited, she contacted head coach Larry Sanders when she was accepted to UCSD, and tried out as a walk on for the team. Two-hundred-and-seven goals and a UCSD single season scoring record later, Sanders said he is happy that he gave Gstettenbauer the opportunity to try out and develop into the amazing athlete she proved to be.
When making the decision to try out, Gstettenbauer knew she would have to give up her beloved position as two-meter defender, since her tall, skinny frame would not be suited as well to manning up against college-level opponents. She quickly converted to driver, a position more akin to scoring, but never lost her defensive roots, becoming the team’s strongest perimeter defender and leading the team in steals. Gstettenbauer said she has enjoyed her run to the top the Tritons’ scoring books and the camaraderie that her team always provided, and does not look forward to leaving.
With graduation approaching, Gstettenbauer said she has no solid plans.
‘I want to take a year off before I do anything and just try to get a job somewhere,’ she said. ‘I’ll probably be working at the pool as a lifeguard until September.’
If nothing else, Gstettenbauer said she hopes to continue playing water polo through a club in San Diego, and maybe even become an assistant coach for her former team. Ultimately, she hopes to travel and play water polo abroad, but she has no definitive destination in mind and will accept anything the road before her presents.
Readers can contact Tyler Nelson at tcnelson@ucsd.edu.