Editor’s Note: The 2019 NCAA Women’s Water Polo Tournament is happening this week—and Swimming World has you covered! Keep up with all the action online or look for #SwimmingWorld on Twitter and other social media platforms.
With convincing wins Tuesday afternoon at Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center, Pacific, the Golden Coast Conference champs, and UC San Diego, representing the Western Water Polo Association for the very last time, both advanced to the Elite Eight of the 2019 NCAA Women’s Water Polo Tournament.
In the day’s first match, UC San Diego broke out to a 4-1 first quarter lead, and Wagner could never catch up, as the Tritons won a play-in match for the first time since 2016 as they beat the Seahawks 12-8. Leading the way for Head Coach Brad Kreutzkamp’s squad was Shelby Stender, who scored four goals, including two in the game’s pivotal opening period.
Daisy Nankervis led Wagner (30-10) with three goals on three shots.
UCSD (22-13) advances to a meeting with No. 1-seed USC in the quarterfinals on Friday, May 10, beginning at 12 p.m. PST. The win extends the program’s representation of the WWPA which will end after this season, as Triton Athletics transitions from Division II to Division I status in all sports, with women’s water polo moving to the Big West conference for 2020 play.
This year, UCSD and USC met in the UC Santa Barbara Winter Invite, with the Trojans capturing a 13-4 decision. USC owns a 12-match winning streak over UCSD dating back to 1997.
Pacific faced Cal Lutheran in the day’s other match-up, with the Tigers sprinting out to an 8-2 halftime lead over the Regals, who were appearing in an NCAA tournament match for the first time since 2010. The day would grow longer for Cinderella CLU, as they ended up on the wrong end of a 16-4 final.
For the Tigers, Kyra Christmas was dominant, scoring five goals. The 2018 and 2019 GCC Player of the Year has now scored seven goals in four NCAA postseason matches—two wins and two losses for Head Coach James Graham’s squad. The Calgary native’s efforts will be essential as her team moves on to a quarterfinal match against second seed Stanford (20-2) at 3:30 p.m. PST. In 31 attempts, the Tigers (18-8) have never beaten the Cardinal.
The Tigers will probably not be meeting Michigan again; the Wolverines (23-8)—who on Friday at 5:15 p.m. PST will face No 3 seed UCLA (23-6)—were their opponents in four matches this season. The only way Pacific and Michigan might meet for a fifth time is if the two underdogs advance to a semifinal match on Saturday.
For Cal Lutheran, an inspirational chapter in the program’s history comes to a close. Head Coach Craig Rond, who has been the only men’s and women’s coaching in CLU polo history, rallied his team to a win in the 2019 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) over two-time defending champion Pomona-Pitzer.
[On The Record with Craig Rond, Head Men’s and Women’s Water Polo Coach for Cal Lutheran]
Noteworthy in Tuesday’s loss is that Rond’s daughter Lexi, who led the Regals this season with 57 goals, scored twice. The freshman will likely be counted on to lead CLU to greater success in years to come.
2019 NCAA Women’s Water Polo Tournament Bracket. Photo Courtesy: NCAA
Also playing on Friday at 1:45 p.m. PST are Hawai’i, representing the Big West, and Cal, the tournament’s fourth-seeded team which received the final at-large berth from the NCAA selection committee. Stanford and UCLA received the other two bids. That match pits two evenly matched squads—the Rainbow Wahine (18-5) are currently ranked #5 in the country, while the Golden Bears (16-8) are #4. Cal has won two of three contests this season.
[CWPA Top-25 Varsity Women’s Water Polo Poll: Saying Goodbye to Non-NCAA Teams]
All quarterfinal matches on Friday, as well as Saturday’s semifinal contests and Sunday’s national championship game will be live-streamed via the Stanford website. Information on all aspects of the tournament is available here.