Natalie Golda

{{short description|American water polo player (born 1981)}} {{Infobox sportsperson | name = Natalie Golda | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date and age text|December 28, 1981}} | birth_place = Lakewood, California, U.S. | collegeteam = University of California Los Angeles | national_team= USA | occupation = Water Polo Coach<br>* Marist College (2013-2016)<br>* Fresno State (2018-2025) | coach =Todd Sprague (Rosary High School)<br>Adam Krikorian (UCLA)<br>Guy Baker (Olympics) | spouse = Eric Benson | children = 2 daughters | position = Defender, Center Forward | height = 180 cm | weight = 84 kg | sport = Water Polo | headercolor = lightsteelblue | show-medals = yes | medaltemplates = {{MedalSport | U.S. Women's Water Polo National Team }} {{MedalCountry | the {{USA}} }} {{MedalCompetition | Olympic Games }} {{MedalSilver | 2008 Beijing | Team competition }} {{MedalBronze | 2004 Athens | Team competition }} {{MedalCompetition | World Championships }} {{MedalGold | 2003 Barcelona | Team competition }} {{MedalGold | 2007 Melbourne | Team competition }} {{MedalSilver | 2005 Montréal | Team competition }} }}

'''Natalie Golda''' (now '''Benson''', born December 28, 1981) is a former American water polo player who competed for the University of California Los Angeles, and was a member of the US Water Polo Team that won the bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She coached women's water polo at Marist College from 2013 to 2016, and was hired to coach at Fresno State College's initial women's water polo program beginning in 2018, where she has continued at least through the 2026 season. In 2015, she was inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame.<ref name=WP>{{cite web|title=Natalie Benson (2015) |url=https://usawaterpolo.org/hof.aspx?hof=19 |website=usawaterpolo.org |publisher=USA Water Polo |access-date=18 September 2020 }}</ref><ref name=WPHOF2>{{cite web|title=Hall of Fame Inductees |url=https://usawaterpolo.org/sports/2018/11/28/trads-hof-inductees-html.aspx |website=usawaterpolo.org |publisher=USA Water Polo |access-date=18 September 2020 }}</ref>

== Early life == She was born in Lakewood, California on December 28, 1981. Golda played varsity water polo for all four years at Rosary High School in Fullerton, California under head coach Todd Sprague. Her team won the California Interscholastic Federation title in 1998 and 1999, and she was named First-Team All-Golden West League from 1996 to 1999. A multi-sport athlete in High School, she lettered in softball for four years and volleyball for two.<ref name=WPHOF/><ref name=WP/><ref name=Olympedia>{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/109406|title=Olympedia Biography, Nathalie Golda|access-date=March 14, 2025}}</ref>

==UCLA== upright=.35|left|thumb|Krikorian in 2018 Playing both defender and center forward positions, Golda won three NCAA championships with UCLA in 2001, 2003, 2005, where she was coached primarily under coach Adam Krikorian. As a freshman in 2001, she helped the Bruins win the first women's water polo title recognized by the NCAA. In 2002, she earned Honorable Mention All-American honors and was named to the NCAA All-Tournament First-Team and All-MPSF (Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) Tournament Second Team. In 2003, Golda was named a first team All-American, first team All-MPSF, first team All-NCAA and All-MPSF Tournaments. She also led UCLA with 50 goals.<ref name=WPHOF>{{cite web|url=https://usawaterpolo.org/hof.aspx?hof=19|title=USA Water Polo Hall of Fame, Natalie Golda Benson|access-date=March 14, 2025}}</ref>

In her Senior year at UCLA, Golda was selected the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship after leading her team to a 3–2 victory over Stanford in the title game. Golda scored the first goal of the contest in the championship game and then led a defensive effort that held the Cardinal to just two goals, including none in the first half. In the last 30 seconds of the game, the Bruin defense held off a 6-on-5 advantage to preserve the 3–2 win. Golda had four goals in the three tournament games. An outstanding collegiate player, she helped guide the 2005 UCLA Bruins to their seventh national championship. In May 2005 Golda received the Peter J. Cutino Award, given annually to the outstanding player in women's collegiate water polo.<ref name=WPHOF/><ref name=WP/>

upright=.25|left|thumb|Cutino Award trophy The Cutino Award ended Golda's UCLA career on a high note after winning the 2005 NCAA Championship and leading UCLA to a perfect 33–0 record and an NCAA record 33-game winning streak. Golda's other 2005 honors included: American Water Polo Coaches Association Player of the Year, MPSF Conference Player of the Year, NCAA Tournament MVP and NCAA first tournament team. She finished the 2005 season with 47 goals and her career with 158 goals, third-most in UCLA history.

Golda joined other UCLA Bruins, Coralie Simmons (2001), Kelly Rulon (2007), and Courtney Mathewson (2008), as the school's four UCLA woman Peter J. Cutino Award winners, all coached by Adam Krikorian.<ref>[https://www.ncaa.com/waterpolo-womens/article.aspx?id=261324 Cutino Award winners]{{dead link|date=February 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

===UCLA Scoring by year=== {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- ! bgcolor="#e5e5e5" | Year !! bgcolor="#e5e5e5" | Goals !! bgcolor="#e5e5e5" | Attempts !! bgcolor="#e5e5e5" | Percentage |- | 2001 || 24 || 54 || 44 |- | 2002 || 37 || 71 || 52 |- | 2003 || 50 || 101 || 49 |- | 2005 || 47 || 105 || 48 |- |Total |111 |331 |193 |- |}

==2004, 2008 Olympic medals== Golda was part of the U.S. Women's Water Polo Team that won the bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In Olympic play, she was coached by U.S. Women's Head Coach Guy Baker, who had also coached her at UCLA. In 2004, Golda redshirted to play in the 2004 Olympic games in Athens, Greece. She scored two goals at the Athens Games, one against Hungary and another against Australia and helped the team win a bronze medal.<ref name=Olympedia/>

She was one of three returning players on the USA Olympic water polo team in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In game one of the 2008 Olympics, Golda, the high scorer, led the team with 4 goals to a close 12–11 victory over Olympic newcomer China. Game two against defending gold medalist Italy ended in a draw after Italy managed to score a tying goal with only 22 seconds left in the game. The United States surged in game three against Russia with Golda scoring a team-leading 3 goals in a 12–7 defeat of Russia. In the Olympic semifinal, the U.S. women's water polo team beat Australia 9–8, with Golda scoring one goal and providing one assist. Golda scored one goal in the championship game against the Netherlands and took home the silver medal from Beijing.<ref name=Olympedia/>

==International highlights== Golda helped the US National Team win the 2003 Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic, qualifying the United States for Olympic water polo play at the Athens Olympiad in 2004. With her four tournament goals, the US team took gold at the 2003 FINA World Championships in Barcelona, Spain. In April 2006, she left for Greece to play for a club team in the League of European Nations, the ANC Glyfada team.

In February 2007, Golda was inducted into the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) Hall of Fame with fellow Olympic medalists Heather Moody and Nicolle Payne. The three women were members of the bronze medal 2004 U.S. Olympic team in Athens, and are the first women added to the NYAC Hall of Fame.

Golda and fellow UCLA Bruin Jaime Hipp are members of the USA water polo women's national team, which is ranked no. 1 in the world.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.usawaterpolo.org/NationalTeams/WomensNationalTeam.aspx |title=USA Water Polo Women's National Team |access-date=2008-08-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080810182350/http://www.usawaterpolo.org/NationalTeams/WomensNationalTeam.aspx |archive-date=2008-08-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Honors=== She was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016 and is a member of the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame.<ref name=WPHOF/>

==Coaching== ===Huntington Beach=== Golda was the head coach of the Huntington Beach Water Polo Club where she led the team to a first place in the Junior Olympics in 2011 and a second place finish in 2012.<ref name=Williams>{{cite web|url=https://uclabruins.com/sports/womens-water-polo/roster/alys-williams/5267|title=UCLA Women's Water Polo, Alys Williams|access-date=May 10, 2026}}</ref><ref name=Golda>Huntington Beach Water Polo Club: [https://www.clubassistant.com/club/coaches.cfm?c=164 Coaching staff]. Accessed November 7, 2008.</ref><ref>Dan Albano, [http://www.ocvarsity.com/articles/beach-66292-benson-barbara.html Benson says her goodbyes to H.B. club team] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130808004650/http://www.ocvarsity.com/articles/beach-66292-benson-barbara.html |date=2013-08-08 }}, OCVarsity.com, August 4, 2013</ref>During her tenure at the Huntington Beach Club, she coached future 2020 Tokyo water polo gold medalist Alys Williams Moore.<ref name=EarlyPath>{{cite web|url=https://usawaterpolo.org/news/2020/7/8/general-alys-williamss-journey-to-the-national-team.aspx|title=USA Water Polo, Nilsen, Robert, "Alys Williams's Path to Olympic Hopeful"|access-date=May 10, 2026}}</ref>

===Marist College=== In August 2013, she accepted the women's coaching position at Division I Marist College in New York. She has since guided the Red Foxes to Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Water polo regular season championships in 2015, and second-place finishes in the MAAC Conference Championships. Golda was named Anaconda Sports Coach of the Year in 2014, and has had five players named All-MAAC First team, six on All-MAAC Second Team, One MAAC Rookie of the Year and 10 All-MAAC Academic Team Honors over the course of two seasons.<ref>Huntington Beach Water Polo Club: [https://www.clubassistant.com/club/coaches.cfm?c=164 Coaching staff]. Accessed November 7, 2008.</ref><ref>Dan Albano, [http://www.ocvarsity.com/articles/beach-66292-benson-barbara.html Benson says her goodbyes to H.B. club team] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130808004650/http://www.ocvarsity.com/articles/beach-66292-benson-barbara.html |date=2013-08-08 }}, OCVarsity.com, August 4, 2013</ref>

===Fresno State=== In 2016, Natalie Golda was named the first head women's water polo coach at Fresno State, and began competition during the spring of 2018.<ref>"Natalie Benson introduced as head women's water polo coach", GoBulldogs.com, June 30, 2016", [http://www.gobulldogs.com/news/2016/7/1/natalie-benson-introduced-as-head-womens-water-polo-coach.aspx?path=wpolo]</ref> From 2018 to 2025, she led the Fresno State Bulldogs to an overall record of 114–79, and four Golden Coast Conference championship titles in four-straight years from 2021 to 2024.<ref name=Fresno>Fresno State Water Polo, 2026 Game Notes, Head Coach, Natalie Benson|access-date=March 14, 2025</ref><ref>[http://www.usawaterpolo.org/genrel/061716aaa.html Natalie Benson Named Fresno State Women's Water Polo Head Coach], USAWaterPolo.org, June 17, 2016</ref>

==Personal== * Currently resides in Fresno, California, with her husband Eric Benson and her two daughters. * Hobbies include writing, listening to music * Favorite quote: "Life is too important to be taken seriously." – Oscar Wilde

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{Sports links}} * [http://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=7/blog/ Natalie Golda's 2008 NBC Olympics blog] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080808150545/http://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=7/blog/ |date=2008-08-08 }} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20061030144522/http://uclabruins.cstv.com/sports/w-wpolo/mtt/golda_natalie00.html UCLA team bio] * [http://www.usoc.org/26_22040.htm Natalie Golda's U.S. Olympic team bio] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070227092057/http://www.usoc.org/26_22040.htm |date=2007-02-27 }} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060419095010/http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?id=29386 Feature in 6/3/04 ''Daily Bruin''] * [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13448-2004Aug18.html Golda (and others) interviewed at 2004 Olympics] * USA Water Polo: [https://web.archive.org/web/20070926221328/http://usawaterpolo.org/index.php?customernumber=614341366530566&pr=020907_NYACHOF Water Polo Olympic Medalists to be inducted into NYAC Hall of Fame.]

{{United States women's water polo squad 2004 Summer Olympics}} {{United States women's water polo squad 2008 Summer Olympics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golda, Natalie}} Category:1981 births Category:Living people Category:American female water polo players Category:Water polo players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Category:Water polo players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:Olympic silver medalists for the United States in water polo Category:Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in water polo Category:UCLA Bruins women's water polo players Category:Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:World Aquatics Championships medalists in water polo Category:Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Category:American water polo coaches Category:21st-century American sportswomen