Nicolle Payne

Nicolle Katherine Payne (born July 15, 1976) is an American water polo player who competed for the University of California Los Angeles. The goalkeeper was a member of the US teams that won the silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics. After ending her elite competitive Water Polo career, and graduating UCLA in 1998, she coached water polo for UCLA and Team USA. During her High School years, Payne earned first-team all-league, team MVP, and All-California Interscholastic Federation honors, and received All-American honors three times. In the 1996 season, she recorded 175 saves and a 3.07 goals against average (GAA). She was chosen as the National Player of the Year as a freshman. Though hurt early in the 1997 season with a herniated disk and a strained vertebra, she later returned to accumulate a 4.22 GAA in 72 quarters of play. The All-American goalkeeper captained the Bruin team from 1995–1998 and was a member of three national championship teams from 1996 to 1998 led by Coach Baker. Payne finished her career at UCLA with her third national championship in 1998, with 13 saves in the final game. Her 2.77 GAA and 225 saves remain UCLA records.

Olympics, 2000-2004 Payne represented the United States at the 2000 Olympic water polo competition and helped the U.S. team bring home the silver medal. As goalkeeper for Team USA, she appeared in all seven games and recorded 19 saves, including eight against both Canada and Australia. At the 2000 Summer Olympics, Payne was coached by Head U.S. Olympic Water Polo team Coach Guy Baker, her coach for men's water polo team at UCLA where he had led the team to three successive national championships. In the final match, the American Women's Water Polo team led 2-1 over Australia at half-time. With only 13 seconds remaining in tournament play, American player Brenda Villa scored to cause a tie at 3-3. In the final 1.3 seconds, Australia’s Yvette Higgins scored scored, and Australia won the gold medal over the U.S. Women's team by a score of 4-3. The women's water polo team from Russia placed third for the bronze medal.

Honors In February 2007, Payne was inducted into the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) Hall of Fame with fellow Olympic medalists Natalie Golda and Heather Moody. 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. On October 9, 2009, Payne was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame. The induction was alongside another Olympic medalist, Coralie Simmons, water polo coach, Ron Richison, Olympic silver medalist Peter Varellas, and Olympic Games referee, Aaron Chaney.