The 24-year old Huntington Beach, Calif., native graduated from NCAA Division II California State University-Bakersfield in 2005.  As a member of the Roadrunners water polo team, Hedgpeth was named team captain and Most Valuable Player twice.  She began her water polo career at the age of 13, playing club and varsity water polo, as well as swimming at Edison High School.  In 2000, she was selected to play for the Southern California Zone team in Los Alamitos.

Hedgpeth will take over a program that has been run by Mitch Carty since 2003.  Carty led the Poets to a fourth place finish at the Division III Nationals in 2006.  His 69 coaching victories are the most in the program’s 13-year history.  Carty announced he would step down following the 2006-07 academic year, in January. 

"It is an honor to be selected for this position and I feel tremendously blessed to have been granted this opportunity,” Hedgpeth says.  “I have had the utmost privilege of being mentored by Mitch Carty over the past academic year and I know that I have some very big shoes to fill. The athletic programs here at Whittier College are headed in an extremely positive direction and I feel honored to be apart of that movement. My dedication to this program and to these women is immense; I care deeply about every single one of these athletes and I am so very excited about being able to lead them in a part of their college experience."

Whittier College is currently 9-12 this season and in third place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.