Jacqueline ("Jackie") Frank DeLuca (born May 1, 1980 in Hermosa Beach,
California) is an accomplished American water
polo goalkeeper, 2004
bronze medal Olympian and two-time collegiate National Player of the
Year.
Early life Jackie
Frank began competitive swimming at the Long Beach Swim Club at age 10.
After a year of swimming, she joined the water polo team. In the last
game of the year, she played in goal when the regular goalie didn't
show up and ended up making first-team all-tournament.
Frank is
1998 graduate of Los Alamitos High School, where she competed on both
the swim and water polo teams and was named First-Team All-America in
water polo each of her four years. Her Los Al Griffins water polo team
won the Southern Section Championship in 1996 and her swimming team won
the Southern Section Championship in 1994. In her junior year, her
girls water-polo team finished 24-0. Besides athletics, Frank was
active in the Key Club and was selected for the California Scholarship
Federation.
Stanford University As
a freshman in 1999, Jackie Frank redshirted to train with the U.S.
National Team. The next year, however, she decided to return to
Stanford and did not play with the US Olympic team at the 2000 Sydney
Olympics. As a first year goalie, Frank played in 27 games for 686
minutes and recorded a GAA of 4.65. She played well against good
opponents: 15 saves to keep Cal scoreless in the first three periods of
play in the Northern California Regional Qualifiers, 7 saves to help
Stanford to an 8-5 win over the California Golden Bears in the National
Championship third-place game.
As a sophomore in 2001, Frank was
named First Team All-America by the American Water Polo Coaches
Association and All-Tournament Team honors at the NCAA and the MPSF
Championships. She recorded 151 saves in 25 games with a 6.0 saves per
game average and held opponents to just 79 goals. The Stanford Athletic
Board awarded Jackie Frank the Block 'S' for the athlete with the
highest cumulative grade point average.
In 2002: Stanford
women's water polo had a 23-2 season and avenged their 2001 loss in the
NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship by beating UCLA 8-4. Frank was
voted the MVP of the tournament; in the final game she had 12 saves and
allowed only 1 goal when UCLA had 6 on 5 advantage. The American Water
Polo Coaches Association named her Player of the Year for a second year
in a row. Frank had 161 saves in goal for the Stanford Cardinal ,
averaging 7.32 per game and allowed only 87 opponent goals. She was
also selected as an Academic All-American and Stanford Athletic Board
Block 'S' outstanding athlete for a second year.
The Stanford
women made their third consecutive appearance in the NCAA title game in
May 2003. Frank's statistics by then: 23 games, 142 saves, including a
thrilling overtime game against UCLA at the MPSF Tournament with 22
saves. The senior goalkeeper was honored as the NCAA Player of the Year
and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Goalie of the Year for the
second straight season. In June 2003, Jackie Frank receiving the
Stanford Athletic Board's highest honor,The Al Masters Award, for
attaining the highest standards of athletic performance, leadership and
academic achievement.The same month, Frank was named recipient of the
Peter J. Cutino Award, which annually recognizes the best male and
female American collegiate water polo player.
Olympics and international play Jacqueline
Frank Deluca played on the U.S. Senior National Team from 1998-2004,
and since summer of 2002 as starting goalkeeper. In five games at the
2002 World Cup in Perth, Australia, Frank amassed 52 saves, including a
tournament-high 14 in a semifinal game against Canada and 8 in the
silver medal performance against Hungary. Her 4.2 goals per game was
the lowest among all goalies at the World Cup.
In June 2004,
Jackie Frank came up with two stops during the deciding penalty
shootout of an eventual 12-10 win over Hungary in the gold medal game
of the FINA Women's Water Polo World League Super Final. In Long Beach,
California before a a crowd of 3,108, Team USA and Hungary never got
more than one goal ahead of each other through 36 minutes of play.
Still tied 8-8 at the end of regulation, the gold-medal decision came
down to a penalty shootout.
The 2004 U.S. women’s Olympic water
polo team, with Jackie Frank as goalie, just missed out on the gold
medal game when Italy defeated the US on a last minute shot that got
past Frank for a goal. The team defeated Australia for the bronze medal.
After
taking a year off to have a baby, Stanford alumna and 2004 Olympic Team
goalkeeper Jackie DeLuca, formerly Frank, rejoined the USA Water Polo
Women’s National Team in October 2005. A month later. her first
competition was the Speedo Top 40 tournament at the USA Water Polo
National Training Center in Los Alamitos, where she had won MVP honors
in 2002.