Courtesy: NCAA
INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA Women’s Water Polo Committee announced today the nine teams vying for the 2023 National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship. Seven teams have been placed in the bracket; the remaining two teams will compete for the last berth in the bracket via an opening-round game.
The opening-round game will be contested May 10, hosted by Pacific, which will also host the championship to be held May 12-14. The first round, semifinal and championship games will be played at the Chris Kjeldsen Pool at the Douglass M. Eberhardt Aquatics Center in Stockton. The 2023 championship will be an eight-team, single-elimination tournament.
In the opening-round game, LIU (21-12) will play Biola (16-14), with the winner advancing to the championship bracket to play Stanford (21-1) in Game 1. Rounding out the bracket will be UCLA (20-7) taking on UC Irvine (20-6) in Game 2, Southern California (26-2) competing against Fresno St. (17-8) in Game 3 and California (19-9) facing Princeton (27-3) in Game 4. Please reference the bracket for all game times.
Teams Selected
- Stanford
- USC
- UCLA
- Cal
- Princeton
- Fresno State
- UC Irvine
- LIU*
- Biola*
*will play head-to-head to earn spot in playoff bracket
Conferences receiving automatic qualification include the Big West Conference, Collegiate Water Polo Association, Golden Coast Conference, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and the Western Water Polo Association. The remaining three teams were selected at-large without geographical restrictions.
The first round and semifinal games will be streamed on ncaa.com. The national championship game will take place at 10 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, May 14 on ESPNU.
For more information about the National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship and the 2023 championship bracket, log on to ncaa.com.
thanks alot of information mantap
totally unfair. NCAA only allows 4 men teams to qualify but 9 for women?! that’s 5 teams of men EVERY YEAR who are denied the NCAA championship experience. don’t blame it all on football $$ inequities either. the rules are just flat out unfair to men.
https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/waterpolo-men/nc/2022 take a look at this handy chart from last year and get back to me on whether there are only 4 teams for the men’s tournament.