What motivates Moana Tuipulotu to get out of bed before dawn and jump into a pool when it’s 30 degrees outside?

The answer might scare some people.

"Being able to beat girls up, especially when you’re stressed out at school," Tuipulotu said. "It’s a great way to get that out."

A senior on the University of Redlands water polo team in California, Tuipulotu will finish her career on the school’s top-10 list in scoring.

The 2009 Lahainaluna alumna has helped the Bulldogs reach the championship game of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament each of the past two years.

Redlands won the title in 2011, advancing to an NCAA play-in game, and lost in heartbreaking fashion last season.

Tuipulotu scored the game-winning goal in a 7-6 win over Occidental (Calif.) to advance to the final, where the Bulldogs lost in the third overtime on a golden goal.

"We really enjoyed playing in overtime last year," Tuipulotu said sarcastically. "It was pretty annoying. We had a lot of games where we would be winning and then somehow we would mess it up."

Redlands lost a lot of players from last season, as Tuipulotu is one of only three seniors on this year’s team.

She entered the season with 133 total goals and has scored 20 times in eight games, moving her into eighth place all time.

After winning its first two matches, Redlands is just 1-5 in its past six heading into this weekend’s Claremont Convergence tournament.

The team got the entire week of spring break off, but had two practices Tuesday as they prepare for three straight weekends during which they play twice on both Saturday and Sunday.

"I know individually we have the potential because each individual player is good enough. But for us, it’s just trying to figure out how to work together as a team, I would say," Tuipulotu said. "Getting our younger players experience is really important in these tournaments before conference starts."

Redlands was one of three colleges Tuipulotu visited during high school.

She had 24 hours before the deposit to attend Redlands was due, so she took a stab and decided to give the school a chance.

"It was honestly a shot in the dark," she said. "It sounds bad, but honestly, it was the day before I had to send in my deposit and I said, ‘Whatever, let’s go.’ I already knew I could transfer back home to UH if I hated it."

She admits to feeling homesick and has struggled adapting to the colder weather. During preseason her freshman year, she admitted to attending only one or two practices.

"It was so cold and rainy I couldn’t get myself to get (to practice) at all," she said. "At the end of preseason, our coach usually talks with the individual players and tells them what he sees in them for the team and when he talked to me, he basically said, ‘I haven’t really seen you play, so I can’t really tell you where you would fit in on this team.’ "

"I told him, ‘OK, Coach, I’ll show you where I fit in on this team,’ and I think he was pleasantly surprised."

She finished her freshman year second on the team with 37 goals and hasn’t stopped scoring since.