NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship

NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship
Founded 2001
Number of teams 8
Current champions Stanford (4)
Most successful club(s) UCLA (7)
Website NCAA.com

The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship has existed since the 2001 season. Five conferences have teams competing in women's water polo: the Big West Conference, the Collegiate Water Polo Association, the single-sport Golden Coast Conference, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Some teams compete at Division III either as members of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference or independently.

Champions

Year National Champion Score Runner-Up Host or site
2001 UCLA 5-4 Stanford Stanford University, Avery Aquatic Center, Stanford, California
2002 Stanford 8-4 UCLA USC, McDonald's Swim Stadium, Los Angeles, California
2003 UCLA (2) 4-3 Stanford UC San Diego, Canyonview Pool, San Diego, California
2004 USC 10-8 Loyola Marymount Stanford University, Avery Aquatic Center, Stanford, California
2005 UCLA (3) 3-2 Stanford University of Michigan, Canham Natatorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
2006 UCLA (4) 9-8 USC UC Davis, Schaal Aquatics Center, Davis, California
2007 UCLA (5) 5-4 Stanford Long Beach State, Joint Forces Training Base, Los Alamitos, California
2008 UCLA (6) 6-3 USC Stanford University, Avery Aquatic Center, Stanford, California
2009 UCLA (7) 5-4 USC University of Maryland, Eppley Recreation Center Natatorium, College Park, Maryland
2010 USC (2) 10-9 Stanford San Diego State, Aztec Aquaplex, San Diego, California
2011 Stanford (2) 9-5 California University of Michigan, Canham Natatorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
2012 Stanford (3) 6-4 USC San Diego State, Aztec Aquaplex, San Diego, California
2013 USC (3) 10-9 5OT Stanford Harvard University, Blodgett Pool, Cambridge, Massachusetts
2014 Stanford (4) 9–5 UCLA USC, Uytengsu Aquatics Center, Los Angeles, California
2015 Stanford University, Avery Aquatic Center, Stanford, California
2016 UCLA, Spieker Aquatics Center, Los Angeles, California
2017 Indiana and the Indiana Sports Corp, IU Natatorium on the campus of IUPUI, Indianapolis, IN
2018 USC, Uytengsu Aquatics Center, Los Angeles, California

[1][2]

Tournament notes

No school from outside the state of California has ever surpassed fourth place. Hence, no non-California school has ever participated in the NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship game, nor has a non-California school ever won the consolation game. In fact, with the exception of Stanford University and Cal (both in the northern part of the state), all of the schools who have achieved first, second, or third place have been located in Los Angeles. Prior to NCAA tournament competition, USA Water Polo conducted an intercollegiate team championship from 1984-2000. In 1995, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania became the only non-California school to win the intercollegiate women's water polo championship.

The women's water polo team from UCLA has won 7 of the 13 championships, and won the 100th and 101st NCAA Championship for the school in 2007 and 2008 respectively.[3][4]

Tournaments

The University of California-Los Angeles Bruins are honored at the White House by President of the United States George W. Bush in June 2008 for their winning the 2008 Division I national championship. The Bruins own seven of the ten Division I titles ever awarded.

2015

The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship will be held on May 8-10, 2015 with Stanford, Stanford, CA hosting. Eight teams will be participating. Conference champions from the MPSF, WWPA, SCIAC, CWPA, MAAC, and Big West will represent the six automatic bids, joined by four at-large bids. The play-in games are conducted May 2 on the campuses of the higher-seeded teams: Whittier (21-14) vs. UCSD (18-18), Wagner (25-8) vs. Princeton (29-3)

Tournament First Round games (May 8, 2015): UCLA (24-2) vs. Whittier or UCSD, UCI (19-8) vs. California (19-7), Southern Cal (22-5) vs. Hawaii (18-9), Stanford vs. Wagner or Princeton.

Semi-finals (May 9, 2015):

Championship (May 10, 2015):

2014

The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship was held on May 9-11, 2014 with USC, Los Angeles, CA hosting. Eight teams will be participating. Conference champions from the MPSF, WWPA, SCIAC, CWPA, MAAC, and Big West will represent the six automatic bids, joined by four at-large bids. The play-in games were conducted May 3 on the campuses of the higher-seeded teams with No. 8 seed Indiana defeating No. 9 seed Wagner 11–6, and No. 7 seed UCSD defeating No. 10 seed Pomona Pitzer 13–9.

Tournament First Round games (May 9, 2014): No. 1 seed Stanford def. No. 8 seed Indiana 18–2, No. 2 seed UCLA def. No. 7 seed UCSD 12–8, No. 3 seed USC def. No. 6 seed UCI 14–11, No. 4 seed Cal def. No. 5 seed ASU 7–4

Semi-finals (May 10, 2014): [1] Stanford def. [4] California 12–8, [2] UCLA def. [3] USC 5–3

Championship (May 11, 2014): [1] Stanford def. [2] UCLA 9–5

Annika Dries of Stanford was named the tournament's most outstanding player.

2013

The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship was held on May 10-12, 2013 with Harvard University, Cambridge, MA hosting. Eight teams will be participating. Conference champions from the MPSF, WWPA, SCIAC, CWPA, MAAC, and Big West will represent the six automatic bids, joined by two at-large bids.

Tournament First Round games (May 10, 2013): No. 2 seed Stanford (27-2) def. No. 7 seed Iona (21-8) 20–3; No. 3 seed UCLA (26-6) def. No. 6 seed Princeton (26-5) 8–6; No. 1 seed Southern California (24-1) def. Pomona-Pitzer (18-16) 27–1; No. 4 seed Hawaii (21-9) def. No. 5 seed UC San Diego (25-13) 13–6

Semi-finals (May 11, 2013): No. 2 seed Stanford (28-2) def. No. 3 seed UCLA (27-6) 5–3; No. 1 seed Southern California (25-1) def. No. 4 seed Hawaii (22-9) 16–9

Championship (May 12, 2013): No. 1 seed Southern California (26-1) def. No. 2 seed Stanford (29-2), 10-95OT

2012

The tournament was held at the SDSU's Aztec Aquaplex in San Diego, California with automatic bids from the MPSF, CWPA, Big West, MAAC, WWPA and SCIAC conferences. The three-day championships on May 11–13, 2012, will also have two at-large teams.

Tournament First Round games (May 11, 2012): No. 1 Stanford (23-2) def. No. 8 Pomona-Pitzer (21-16) 17–5; No. 2 UCLA (21-3) def. No. 7 Iona (24-11) 14–3; No. 3 Southern California (21-5) def. No. 6 Princeton (28-4) 14–2; No. 4 UC Irvine (24-6) def. No. 5 Loyola Marymount (20-9) 8–6.

Semi-finals (May 12, 2012: No. 1 Stanford (24-2) vs. No. 4 UC Irvine (25-6); No. 2 UCLA (22-3) vs. No. 3 Southern California (22-5).

Championship (May 13, 2012): No. 1 Stanford vs. No. 3 Southern California.

2011

The tournament was held at the University of Michigan's Canham Natatorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan with automatic bids from the MPSF (Stanford), CWPA (Indiana), Big West (UCI), MAAC (Iona), WWPA (UCSD) and SCIAC (Redlands). The three-day championships on May 13–15, 2011, will also have two at-large teams.

Tournament First Round games: No. 1 Stanford (25-1) vs. No. 8 Iona College/University of Redlands (play-in winner); No. 5 UCI (21-8) vs. No. 4 USC (18-6); No. 3 UCLA (24-6) vs. No. 6 Indiana (21-8); No. 7 UCSD (17-18) vs. No. 2 California (24-4) Semi-finals: No. 2 California def. No. 3 UCLA 7–4; No. 1 Stanford def. No. 4 Southern California 8–4

Championship: No. 1 Stanford defeated No. 2 California 9-5 for its second national title.

All Tournament First Team: Amber Oland, Stanford; Annika Dries, Stanford; Emily Csikos, Cal; Kim Krueger, Stanford; Patricia Jancso, USC; Melissa Seidemann, Stanford; Dana Ochsner, Cal; Priscilla Orozco, UCLA

All Tournament Second Team: Stephane Peckham, Cal; Jakie Kohli, Indiana; Joelle Bekhazi, USC; KK Clark, UCLA; Cortney Collyer, UC Irvine; Jessy Cardey, UC Irvine; Maggie Wood, Iona; Kelly Easterday, UCLA

Tournament MVP: Annika Dries, Stanford

2010

The tournament field was announced on Monday, May 3, 2010 with the Championship tournament scheduled for May 14–16 at San Diego State University's Aztec Aquaplex. Teams received automatic bids were: UCLA (MPSF), Michigan (CWPA), Marist (MAAC), Loyola Marymount (WWPA) and Pomona-Pitzer (SCIAC). Stanford, Cal and USC of MPSF received at-large bids.

Tournament Bracket: #1 Stanford (24-2) vs. #8 Pomona-Pitzer (18-14); #2 USC (22-3) vs. #7 Marist (18-14); #3 UCLA (20-7) vs. #6 Loyola Marymount (27-4); #4 Cal (24-8) vs. #5 Michigan (32-6)

Southern California (25-3) defeated Stanford in the title game 10-9 for its second national title in school history.

2009

The following conferences and institutions received automatic qualification for the 2009 Championships, which were played on May 8–10: Collegiate Water Polo Association, Michigan; Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Marist; Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, USC; Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Cal Lutheran; and Western Water Polo Association, Loyola Marymount. The following institutions received at-large bids to the championship field: Stanford, UCLA, and Hawai'i.

The first round games: #1 seed USC (24-1) vs. #8 Cal Lutheran (19-12); #2 Stanford (24-3) vs. #7 Marist (18-13); #3 UCLA (22-6) vs. #6 Michigan (33-8); and #4 Hawai'i (18-8) vs. # 5 Loyola Marymount (24-7).

The UCLA Bruins women's team (3rd seeded) battled the #1 rated USC Trojans for the national championship on Sunday, May 10, 2009 at College Park, Maryland. With two goals from Tanya Gandy in the first minute of the game, UCLA won a record fifth consecutive crown, 11th national title and 7th NCAA crown.[1] Gandy earned the NCAA Tournament's most valuable player honor.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 UCLA defeats USC, claims NCAA women's water polo title, Los Angeles Daily News, May 10, 2009
  2. ↑ National Collegiate Women's Records Book
  3. ↑ Women's Water Polo Wins UCLA's 100th NCAA Title. Bruins capture third consecutive women's water polo crown with 5-4 win over Stanford. UCLA Athletic Department, May 13, 2007
  4. ↑ UCLA Defeats USC, 6-3, To Win Fourth-Straight NCAA Title. Women's water polo goes undefeated to win UCLA's 101st NCAA championship. UCLA Athletic Department, May 11, 2008.

External links