This past summer, Brenda Villa competed in her third Olympic Games, serving as the US women’s water polo team captain. She earned her second silver medal, to go along with a bronze medal, and has returned for the fourth season to be an assistant coach for the Falcons. Villa’s experience and notoriety continues to be a huge asset to the program. Not only does she offer a tremendous amount of knowledge and credibility to the program with her credentials, she is still a very active member of the water polo community. In addition to being a four-time 1^st Team All-American playing on the Bell Gardens High boys water polo team, she spent three seasons on the Stanford University water polo team and played internationally from 1996-2003 and has competed all over the world. In March of 2007, Villa led the USA Women's National Water Polo Team in Melbourne Australia at the 2007 FINA World Water Polo Championships. Villa scored a total of 11 goals throughout the whole tournament helping Team USA achieve first place naming them the 2007 FINA World Champions. She also helped lead the team to the 2007 Pan Am Games that qualified them for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Last year, Villa played with the international club team Orizzonte “Geymonat” Catania (Italy); before returning to rejoining the National Team. She will once again play professionally in Italy at the end of the water polo season.

    As an attacker in international competition, Villa was one of most experienced members of the Team USA squad, as she helped lead them to 1^st Place in the Holiday Cup, Pan American Games and FINA World Championships in 2003. Villa led the team with 10 goals at the 2003 Pan American Games, including two in the gold medal win over Canada, which qualified them for the Athens Olympics. Additionally, she was named to the Media All-World Team at the 2002 World Cup and was a member of the 2000 Sydney Olympic team that won a silver medal and the 2004 Athens Olympic team that won a bronze medal.

    While at Stanford, she was named the MPSF Player of the Year in 2003 and was a finalist for the Peter J. Cutino Award after winning the award the year prior. In her three seasons with the Cardinal, she finished with 172 goals and was a finalist for the Women’s Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year in 2002 after leading her team with 60 goals on their way to the NCAA championship. In her freshman season, she led the team with 69 goals as the team lost in the NCAA championship game. That season, Villa was also honored as the NCAA Division I Water Polo Player of the Year and was the MPSF Co-Player of the Year as a freshman.