The FINA Women’s Water Polo World League Intercontinental Tournament kicks-off today, Tuesday May 2, in Davis, Calif., with six strong teams from America, Asia and Oceania.
From May 2-6, Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Kazakhstan and the USA will play each other once in a round-robin format, in the hope to secure a spot in the World League Super Final to be held in Shanghai, China from June 6-11.
The tournament concludes on May 7, after a full day of playoffs and only the top-four teams (plus China, as the host country) will advance to the FINA Women’s Water Polo World League Super Final.
Olympic and World champions USA are the World League title holders too, and will battle it out for a possible fourth consecutive crown (undefeated since 2014).
The Intercontinental Tournament’s schedule unfolds as follows:
| Date | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 |
| Day 1 Tuesday, May 2 | 16:00 AUS-CHN | 17:20 JPN-CAN | 19:30 KAZ-USA |
| Day 2 Wednesday, May 3 | 16:30 CAN-AUS | 17:50 KAZ-JPN | 19:10 CHN-USA |
| Day 3 Thursday, May 4 | 16:30 CHN-CAN | 17:50 AUS-KAZ | 19:10 JPN-USA |
| Day 4 Friday, May 5 | 16:30 KAZ-CHN | 17:50 JPN-AUS | 19:10 CAN-USA |
| Day 5 Saturday, May 6 | 16:30 CHN-JPN | 17:50 KAZ-CAN | 19:10 AUS-USA |
| Day 6 Sunday, May 7 | 10:00 5th – 6th | 11:30 3rd – 4th | 13:00 1st – 2nd |
For Team USA the action marks their first competition since winning an unprecedented second straight Olympic gold medal last summer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Olympic gold medalists Melissa Seidemann (Walnut Creek, CA/Stanford/NYAC) and Aria Fischer (Laguna Beach, CA/Laguna Beach HS/SET) pilot Team USA into action which opens against Kazakhstan on Tuesday at 7:30pm pt. Australia, Canada, China, and Japan round out the rest of the competitors.
Tickets are available at the entrance to the Schaal Aquatics Center for the entirety of the tournament with no advance or online sales. The final three days of competition will be streamed live at Facebook.com/USAWP. For more information on the event including team rosters, click here.
Press releases courtesy of FINA and USA Water Polo.
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