Kane Is More Than Able as Coach Colleen Looks Down From Above

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On the surface, McKendree University women’s water polo team faced Biola University at the 2025 Western Water Polo Association Women’s Championship in Morgantown, West Virginia today.

Sydney Kane, the 6′-0″ senior goalie for the McKendree Bearcats came up huge in the game, blocking 21 shots against the normally sharpshooting Biola Eagles from Southern California.

The entire McKendree team came out strong right from the opening sprint and established a solid 5-1 lead at halftime. Despite an energetic second half comeback by Biola, the McKendree women hung on to win the game 7-5. With the victory, McKendree from Lebanon, Illinois qualified for the NCAA Water Polo Championships for the first time in school history.

Not only was the win an upset, but the meaning of this game was much more profound, much deeper.

As the game announcer said at the end of the game, “Their coach is watching from above. This one is for Colleen. McKendree is going to the NCAAs!“

McKendree, against all odds, qualified for the NCAA Championships in a sport long thoroughly dominated by California schools and players – despite losing their dynamic young coach, a mother of a young child, earlier in the 2025 season in a horrific car accident.

The improbable story has its roots when Dr. James Dennis moved to Lebanon and began a 25-year transformation of the Midwest university, located four hours south of Chicago.

Dr. Dennis set off to develop and support more student-athletes on campus. As a native of Southern California, the hotbed of American water polo, he loved the game and allotted a small budget to establish mens and women’s water polo teams – despite being a completely unknown sport in the town of 4,571 residents.

McKendree set out to hire coaches, buy equipment, and start putting a water polo program together.

107 universities field a varsity women’s water polo program in America, but none are located remotely close to the new McKendree team.

With a stereotypical Midwest can-do spirit, the women’s team traveled extensively to any school that will play them. The Western Water Polo Association Championship was a 9-hour bus ride away from their school campus, but there were no complaints from the players who ventured to the states of Indiana, Virginia, Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia this season to compile a 21-8 record.

With a combination of economy class travel in airplanes and buses throughout the unpredictable weather of the winter months, the team perennially battled jet lag. They were always on the go, hosting only four home games all season. But dealing with inconsistent sleep schedules and constant travel fatigue created an indelible bond between the players and coaches.

They ate on the road, grabbing food wherever they could. They predominantly took red-eye flights to their distance matches. They managed long bus rides by sleeping in their parkas and on the shoulders of their teammates. They doubled, tripled, and quadrupled up in small inexpensive hotels. They brought their books along their road trips, always dealing with professors – some who are sympathetic to their seemingly nomadic athletic lifestyle – and other professors who are not.

While the players faced everything from financial worries to academic pressures, there was alway one woman in the center of their lives: coach Colleen Lischwe.

In the small college town of Lebanon, Coach Colleen was well respected by the administrators and is an icon among the 1,960 students.

Charismatic with an infectious smile, a lifelong passion for water polo, and a deep-seated care for her players, she was also equally forceful and demanding. Early morning workouts were held before the sun rose. While the rest of the student body was sound asleep in warm beds, the water polo players regularly struggled to get up for their 6:00 am practices, especially during the season which spanned the fiercely cold winter months of the Midwest.

As collegiate swimmers and water polo players know all too well, the sound of alarm clocks kicked off a collective awakening from a deep slumber. They slowly and reluctantly trudged their way through the snow and stiff winds to the McKendree indoor pool. Their dedication was often questioned and never completely understood by their roommates and NARP friends, but the players are sufficiently motivated by each other and always wanted to live up to the dreams of Coach Colleen.

A former collegiate athlete herself, Coach Colleen understood the demands faced by her student-athletes. She mentored them through tears and conversations about family, friends, and fears.

One early January morning on the Interstate highway from her home to the McKendree campus, Coach Colleen was driving in the darkness to their morning workout. With light snow on the ground and strong winds overnight, the highway was slick and dangerous.

When a truck driver reached down for a drink and took his eyes off the road, he swerved over to the next lane where Coach Colleen was driving cautiously. Her small car was pushed off the highway and she died as her car swerved off a bridge. Her passing was immediate.

Meanwhile on that fateful morning, the players continued to make their way to the pool in the darkness for another pre-season workout. It was a morning like all others – but yet unlike any other.

Coach Colleen was never late to practice. And certainly no one would have ever expected her to miss a practice despite having a young baby with her husband Casey. But that morning, she did not show up at the pool.

Later that morning, the team was informed of Coach Colleen’s death. It was devastating, shocking. Nothing had prepared the women for such news. There was an outpouring of tears and utter disbelief among the players, only two weeks before their season’s first game.

The players were stunned beyond anything any of them have ever experienced. Their coach was only 34 years old, the only NCAA coach to concurrently lead both the men’s and women’s programs – of any sport. She was a one-of-a-kind leader; someone who the players greatly respected – and now she was inexplicably gone. In an instant.

She would no longer be coaching them. She would no longer be leading from the pool deck. The players would no longer hear her voice, demandingly loud during games and soothingly quiet during one-on-one talks. They would no longer be able to learn from her and freely share their problems with her.

The funeral was quickly arranged. In a small Midwest town and an even smaller university, the overwhelming outpouring of compassion and sympathy helped the team deal with their loss. But the vacuum left by Coach Colleen was still a huge hole to fill and the season was scheduled to start.

The team took a week off, but the season was soon upon them. Coach Colleen’s assistant coach Alex Figueras was asked to step into the role as the head coach.

Still in his 20’s, Coach Alex was faced with a nearly impossible task. Tears often filled the goggles of the players when they swam and in the classroom when they studied. The passing of Coach Colleen, no longer with them, left a solemn hole in their hearts.

Jazmine Sandoval, a junior attacker, recalls their first tournament, “It was a very emotional weekend. University of California Merced game us yellow roses before our first game. Cathage College gave us some bungees for our goggles with Colleen’s initials on them. Somehow, we were able to pull through this first weekend.”

One of the traditions that Coach Colleen instituted was a summer reading book as a way to think and reflect on goals and aspirations for the team’s upcoming season and beyond. One of her favorites was Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. The Academy Award-winning actor shared a warm message with the team via Instagram.

Their season continued with a loss, a 19-2 shellacking to the University of California Santa Barbara, a traditional California powerhouse, and another 13-3 tough loss to Indiana University, a school with 69,000 students. The season outlook neither looked good, nor felt right. The players were trying of course, but their hearts were heavy with sorrow.

Everything just seemed so unfair to the 23 young women. Their studies suffered, their concentration was spotty, and their sense of purpose was adrift. But Coach Alex and the players’ parents continued to support them – and things started to turn around.

Inexplicably, they won their next five games. They started to smile again. Laughter was renewed on their trip to California. Win or lose, their friendships at school and teammates in the pool lifted their spirits. They started to mesh well and play better than ever before. Passes became more crisp, shots were more on target, steals came easier, and they all felt an energy above from Coach Colleen.

By playoff time, the team had established its best season in history with a 20-7 record.

Could they actually win and qualify for the National Collegiate Championships in Indiana? Could they somehow replicate the Miracle on Ice after a season of sorrow?

McKendree had never come remotely close to qualifying to compete at the highest echelon of the sport, but starters Sydney Kane, Shanelle Marquez, Dylan Murphy, Jasmin Guzman, Joey Rebelo, Allie Diller, and Bella Morquecho came out strong in the first quarter and started to create history for McKendree – even after a typical nine-hour bus ride to the championship venue.

With Coach Colleen looking down from above, an NCAA Championship berth was on the line and the entire team came through.

Sandoval said, “It has been a very tough year and we cry after our game thinking about our coach and wishing she was here with us.”

When the players could have just as easily felt sorry for themselves and given up on their season, they collectively chose the path of resilience and are playing true to their coach’s legacy.

She would be – and is – very proud of her players.

Their road will continue at the NCAA Division I Women’s Water Polo Championships held May 9th – 11th in Indianapolis at the Indiana University Natatorium. The NCAA Selection Show will air live on Monday, April 28th at 8:00 pm EST [see here]. Every match except for the national championship will be live streamed here on NCAA.com.

Note: on the NCAA Selection Show, the host said that the 2025 Championships may include the greatest field ever assembled in NCAA history and it will include McKendree, the most emotionally drained team of any sport across the entire NCAA.

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