Girls water polo: Tars’ Belden to UCLA

NEWPORT BEACH - Newport Harbor High senior Katherine Belden, a

three-time All-CIF Southern Section Division I performer who was the Sea

View League girls water polo Player of the Year last season, has verbally

committed to continue her career at UCLA, her father, Dwight, announced

Thursday.

Belden, who boasts a 4.1 GPA, said she selected UCLA, where her

brother Peter is a freshman on the men’s water polo team, over Princeton

and Stanford.

“It was a hard decision, but after taking my recruiting trips, I felt

I connected better with the whole UCLA atmosphere,” Katherine Belden

said. “I like the coaching style there and appreciate the balance of

academics, athletics and social life.”

Belden earned first-team All-CIF honors last year, when she amassed 53

goals, 34 assists, 85 steals to help the Sea View League champions

advance to the Division I quarterfinals.

She was second-team All-CIF as a sophomore and a third-team All-CIF

pick as a freshmen, when she started for the Tars’ CIF Division I

champions.

Newport is 65-22 during Belden’s first three years and opens its

2001-02 season Dec. 9 against Long Beach Wilson.

-- by Barry Faulkner