Erika was born January 9, 1985, one of two sisters to Eric and Heidi Figge in Orange, California. Erika's sister Brooke also competed in High School swimming. Erika spent her High School years in Rancho Santa Margarita, a roughly fifty mile drive from Los Angeles. She attended Santa Margarita Catholic High School, a four-year co-ed preparatory school, where she earned All American honors four times, and was a four-time First Team All Serra League honoree. Strong on water polo offense at Santa Margarita High, and exhibiting speed and shooting accuracy, Figge led the Eagles with 70 goals in the 2000-2001 season. At Santa Margarita, Figge was managed and trained in water polo by Coach Scott Taylor in the 2001 season. A multi-sport athlete, in addition to her water polo honors, she was a high school All-American in swimming in the 100 and 50 freestyle.
University of Southern California
A Sociology major, Figge attended the University of Southern California, from around 2003-2007, where she was coached by Montenegro-born USC Head Coach Jovan Vavic. Olympian Brittany Hayes was one of Figge's USC teammates. Figge had a fifth highest team total of 33 goals in her Freshman year, a fourth highest team total of 32 goals as a Sophomore, and a sixth highest total of 22 goals as a Junior in 2006. She functioned frequently as an attacker, a strong versatile offensive player, who could play nearly any position including driver, wing, and hold set (center).
International competition highlights
In June, 2001, as a sixteen-year old junior player in her preview game with the U.S. women's Senior National Team at the Championship game of the Canada Cup in Montreal, Figge scored a goal in the fourth quarter in the U.S. team's 14-8 loss to Australian. Being the final championship game, the U.S. women's team took home the silver medal under U.S. National Team Coach Guy Baker.
Scoring two goals for Team USA, at the 2005 FINA World Championships Figge captured a silver medal. As part of America's Junior National Team, where she captured a gold at the 2005 FINA Junior World Championships in 2005, and at the 2003 FINA Junior World Championships won the silver.
She won a team gold medal in water polo at the 2007 Pan American games in Rio de Janeiro.
