Women’s Water Polo | September 23, 2021
PHILADELPHIA – A huge honor awaits freshman Tatum Lomax, who has been selected to represent her home country of South Africa at the FINA World Junior Water Polo Championships.
Nentaya, Israel will host the 2021 competition spanning from October 10-16 as Lomax is one of 13 selected to travel and compete for South Africa.
The South African squad will look to secure a medal for the first time in the competition, debuting in 1995 and being held every two years. The United States leads all nations with four gold medals in the competition.
Tatum has been making an impact on the international level already in the early stages of her career, competing in the U20 Governor’s Cup held in Russia in 2019. The Johannesburg native was named to both the U20 and senior preliminary team for the 2021 Olympics, while representing her country throughout the U17 and U18 level as well.
Domestically, Tatum applied her trade successfully at St Stithians Girls’ College, helping her team to numerous national titles while being named to a total of five all-tournament teams in her tenure. Her team claimed back-to-back gold medals in the Old Petrians National Tournament in 2019 and 2020, also winning the Kingswood National Tournament in 2020, the St Stithians Slayers National Tournament and St. Anne’s National Tournament in 2019, the Clarendon National Tournament in 2018 and 2019 as well as three consecutive National Aquatics titles in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Tatum looks to help a La Salle side that went 11-5 overall and 6-2 in conference play. The Explorers topped six teams either ranked or receiving votes in 2021 before taking top-seeded Marist to two overtimes in a 12-11 defeat in the MAAC Championships.