Stanford is the most successful program with 9 championships; UCLA has seven; with USC having six. One of these three California-based Pac-12 Conference schools has won the championship every year since women's water polo became an NCAA sport in 2001.[1]
While the tournament often includes teams from around the country, most programs are located within the state of California, and no school from outside California has ever surpassed third place or participated in the NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship game. Indeed, only twice has a school other than Stanford, UCLA, or USC participated in the championship game: Loyola Marymount who lost to USC in 2004 and California (the other California-based Pac-12 school) who lost to Stanford in 2011.[1]
28 teams have appeared in the NCAA Tournament in at least one year starting with 2001 (the initial year that the post-season tournament was under the auspices of the NCAA). The results for all years are shown in this table below.
The code in each cell represents the furthest the team made it in the respective tournament:
The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship was held on May 8–13, 2018 at the USC Uytengsu Aquatics Center, Los Angeles, California. Ten teams were selected to participate in the annual event. Conference champions from the Big West, CWPA, Golden Coast Conference, MAAC, MPSF, SCIAC and WWPA are represented with the seven automatic bids. They were joined by three at-large teams, with play-in games ahead of the tournament.
The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship was held on May 12–14, 2017 at the IU Natatorium; Indianapolis, IN. Ten teams were selected to participate in the annual event. Conference champions from the Big West, CWPA, Golden Coast Conference, MAAC, MPSF, SCIAC and WWPA are represented with the seven automatic bids. They are joined by three at-large teams, with play-in games ahead of the tournament.
Maggie Steffens of Stanford, who scored the winning goal against UCLA with 9 seconds left, was named the tournament's most valuable player.[4]
2016
The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship was held on May 13–15, 2016 with UCLA, Los Angeles hosting. Eight teams were selected to participate in the annual event. Conference champions from the Big West, CWPA, Golden Coast Conference, MAAC, MPSF, SCIAC and WWPA were represented with the seven automatic bids. They were joined by three at-large teams, with play-in games conducted on May 10, 2016.
Play-in games (May 10, 2016, Canyonview Aquatic Center at the University of California, San Diego):San Diego State def. Wagner 7–4, UC San Diego def. Whitter 11–7
Tournament First Round games (May 13, 2016):UCLA def. UC San Diego 17–4, Stanford def. UC Santa Barbara 12–5, Southern California def. San Diego State 12–3, Michigan def. Arizona State 5-4
Championship (May 15, 2016):Southern California def. Stanford 8–7
2015
The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship was held on May 8–10, 2015 with Stanford, Stanford, CA hosting. Eight teams participated in the event. As has been the case since 2011, conference champions from the MPSF, WWPA, SCIAC, CWPA, MAAC, and Big West represented the six automatic bids. They were joined by four at-large teams, with play-in games being conducted on May 2: UC San Diego (18-18) def. Whittier (21-14) 17–11, Princeton (29-3) def. Wagner (25-8) 12–2.
Tournament First Round games (May 8, 2015):UCLA (24-2) def. UC San Diego 9–2, California (19-7) def. UCI (19-8) 6–5, Southern Cal (22-5) def. Hawaii (18-9) 14–7, Stanford (23-2) def. Princeton (30-4) 7–2.
Semi-finals (May 9, 2015):UCLA def. California 9–5, Stanford def. Southern Cal 9–8
The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship was held on May 9–11, 2014 with USC, Los Angeles hosting. Eight teams participated. Play-in games among four at-large teams 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 UC San Diego 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 UC San Diego 12–8, No. 3 seed USC def. No. 6 seed UCI 14–11, No. 4 seed Cal def. No. 5 seed ASU 7–4
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 participated. Conference champions from the MPSF, WWPA, SCIAC, CWPA, MAAC, and Big West were joined by two at-large teams.
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
The tournament was held at the SDSU's Aztec Aquaplex in San Diego, California with automatic bids for the MPSF, CWPA, Big West, MAAC, WWPA and SCIAC conferences. The three-day championships on May 11–13, 2012, also had two at-large teams.
The tournament was held at the University of Michigan's Canham Natatorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan with automatic bids for the MPSF (Stanford), CWPA (Indiana), Big West (UCI), MAAC (Iona), WWPA (UC San Diego) and SCIAC (Redlands). The three-day championships on May 13–15, 2011, also had two at-large teams.
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 on May 14–16 at San Diego State University's Aztec Aquaplex. Teams that 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.
Southern California 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 Hawaii.
The first-round games: #1 seed USC (24-1) def. #8 Cal Lutheran (19-12) 22–2; #2 Stanford (24-3) def. #7 Marist (18-13) 21–5; #3 UCLA (22-6) def. #6 Michigan (33-8) 13–6; and #4 Hawaii (18-8) def. # 5 Loyola Marymount (24-7) 11–7.
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, by a score of 5–4.[2] Gandy earned the NCAA Tournament's most valuable player honor.
The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) is a college athletic conference that operates in the NCAA's Division III. The conference was founded in 1915 and it consists of twelve small private schools that are located in southern California and organized into nine athletic programs. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer are combined teams for sports purposes.
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the western United States, although it now has members as far east as Pennsylvania. The conference participates at the NCAA Division I level, primarily in Olympic sports that are not directly sponsored by a school's home conference.
The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA), and in 1988 was renamed the Big West Conference. The conference stopped sponsoring college football after the 2000 season.
The NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship is an annual tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA men's collegiate water polo. Beginning in 1969, it has been held every year except 2020, when it was postponed to March 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a limited number of NCAA water polo programs at the national level, all men's teams, whether from Division I, Division II, or Division III, are eligible to compete each year in the National Collegiate tournament. The tournament was expanded from a four-team bracket in 2013 by adding two play-in games that are contested by the bottom four seeds, effectively creating a six-team bracket with a first-round bye for the top two teams. This makes it the sport with the fewest teams reaching the NCAA tournament; this is because there are only 43 men's water polo teams between all three NCAA divisions.
The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). For football, they are in the Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I. UCLA is second to only Stanford University as the school with the most NCAA team championships at 121 NCAA team championships. UCLA offers 11 varsity sports programs for men and 14 for women.
Natalie Golda is a former American water polo player and currently the head coach of the newly formed Fresno State Bulldogs water polo team to begin competition in 2018. Considered one of the greatest women's water polo players of all time, her senior leadership helped guide the 2005 UCLA Bruins to their seventh national championship. In May 2005 Golda received the Peter J. Cutino Award, given to the best player in women's collegiate water polo. She was also a member of the US Water Polo Team that won the bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In 2015, she was inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame.
The Collegiate Water Polo Association is a conference of colleges and universities in the Eastern United States that sponsor 19 men's teams and 17 women's teams that compete in varsity water polo. The winners of the conference tournaments earn one of the four spots in the NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship and one of the eight spots in the NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship. The CWPA sponsors club team competition in 17 men's divisions and 13 women's divisions across the United States.
The UC San Diego Tritons are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, San Diego. UC San Diego has 23 varsity sports teams, as well as esports teams, and offers student participation in a wide range of sports. As of July 1, 2020, all UC San Diego teams participate at the NCAA Division I (DI) level in the Big West Conference. During their time in NCAA Division II and the California Collegiate Athletic Association starting in the 2000–01 season, UC San Diego placed in the top 5 in the Division II NACDA Directors' Cup standings nine times, including three 2nd-place finishes. NCSA Athletic Recruiting ranked the Tritons as the nation's top Division II program for eight consecutive years.
{{2009–10 Pacific-10 Conference women's basketball standings}} The 2009–10 Pacific-10 Conference women's basketball season began in October and ended with the Pac-10 Tournament on March 11–14, 2010 at the Galen Center, Los Angeles, California. Stanford won both the regular season and the tournament championships. Stanford and UCLA were selected to participate in the NCAA tournament. Stanford was the runner-up of the NCAA National Championship and completed the season with a 36-2 record. Cal won the WNIT Championship.
The 2006 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship was the 38th annual NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship to determine the national champion of NCAA men's collegiate water polo. Tournament matches were played at the Burns Aquatics Center at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California from December 2–3, 2006.
The 2016 NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship was the 16th annual tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA women's collegiate water polo. Tournament matches were played at the UCLA Spieker Aquatics Center in Los Angeles, California from May 13–15, 2016. The USC Trojans defeated the 2015 champions, the Stanford Cardinal, 8-7 to win their fifth national title, while finishing the season 26-0.
The 2016 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship was the 48th annual NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship to determine the national champion of NCAA men's collegiate water polo. Tournament matches were played at the Spieker Aquatics Complex at the University of California in Berkeley, California from December 3–4, 2016. The five conferences receiving automatic qualification were: the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC), Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) and the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA). California defeated USC 11-8 to win the national title in double overtime.
Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens is the joint athletics program for Pomona College and Pitzer College, two of the Claremont Colleges. It competes in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) of the NCAA Division III. Its mascot is Cecil the Sagehen. Its primary rival is the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags and Athenas, the joint team of the three other undergraduate Claremont Colleges.
The 2020 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship occurred from March 18–21, 2021 in Los Angeles, California at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center. This was the 52nd NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. Six teams participated in this championship. Although this was the 2020 championship, it was played in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The rankings before the tournament: No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 California, No. 3 UCLA and No. 4 USC.
The 2021 NCAA National Collegiate Women's Water Polo Championship was the 19th edition of the NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship, the annual tournament to decide the championship of NCAA women's collegiate water polo. The tournament was held May 14–16, 2021, at the Spieker Aquatics Center in Los Angeles, California, hosted by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
The 2021 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship occurred from December 4–5, 2021 in Los Angeles, California at the Spieker Aquatics Center. This was the 53rd NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. Seven teams participated in this championship. Opening round game-one was played at Princeton University. The UCLA Bruins were the defending national champions and the 2021 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) champions. The rankings before the tournament: No. 1 University of California, No. 2 University of Southern California, No. 3 University of California Los Angeles, No. 4 Stanford University, No. 5 Long Beach State University.
The 2022 UCLA men's volleyball team represented University of California, Los Angeles in the 2022 NCAA Division I & II men's volleyball season. The Bruins, led by tenth year head coach John Speraw, played their home games at Pauley Pavilion when basketball did not conflict with the home game schedule and at John Wooden Center when basketball conflicted with the home game schedule. The Bruins were members of the MPSF and were picked to finish second in the MPSF preseason poll. UCLA hosted the MPSF tournament and also the 2022 NCAA Championship at Pauley Pavilion. The 2022 NCAA Championship began on May 1 with an opening round match.
The 2023 UCLA men's volleyball team represents University of California, Los Angeles in the 2023 NCAA Division I & II men's volleyball season. The Bruins, led by eleventh year head coach John Speraw, play their home games at Pauley Pavilion and the John Wooden Center. The Bruins are members of the MPSF and were picked to finish first in the MPSF preseason poll.
The 2023 Pepperdine Waves men's volleyball team represents Pepperdine University in the 2023 NCAA Division I & II men's volleyball season. The Waves, led by first year head coach Jonathan Winder, play their home games at Firestone Fieldhouse. The Waves are members of the MPSF and were picked to finish second in the preseason poll.
The 2023 Grand Canyon Antelopes men's volleyball team represents Grand Canyon University in the 2023 NCAA Division I & II men's volleyball season. The 'Lopes, led by eighth year head coach Matt Werle, play their home games at GCU Arena. The 'Lopes are members of the MPSF and were picked to finish fourth in the MPSF preseason poll.
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