Race For NCAAs: Conference Tournaments Will Decide Field for 2017 Women’s Water Polo Tournament

UCLA's Maddie Musselman. Photo Courtesy UCLA Athletics

Michael Randazzo, Swimming World Contributor

Nine months after Team USA claimed women’s water polo gold by beating Italy 12-5 in the Rio Olympics, a number of Olympians—from the U.S., Brazil and Hungary—will compete this weekend in conference tournament play around the country. Their goal: qualify for the 2017 NCAA Women’s Water Polo Tournament in Indianapolis (May 12 – 14) perhaps the best women’s water polo competition in a non-Olympic year.

Conference tournaments for the Big West, Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA), Golden Coast Conference (GCC), Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) and the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) will decide six NCAA automatic bids. Three teams will receive at-large berths to fill out the tournament bracket. Play-in games—scheduled for either Saturday, May 6 or Tuesday, May 9—will be held to determine the final eight contestants that will travel to Indianapolis.

One 2017 entrant has already been decided; last Sunday Pomona-Pitzer (17-18, 10-1 SCIAC) claimed the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s (SCIAC) automatic berth by virtue of a 9-3 decision over Whitter (19-15, 10-1 SCIAC) at the SCIAC title match.

Following is a guide to conference play from April 28 – 30.

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

According to last week’s CWPA Women’s Varsity Poll, the MPSF contains the top five teams in the country including #1 UCLA, #2 (T) Stanford, #3 (T) USC, # 4 (T) Arizona State and #4 (T) Cal. The MPSF Tournament—featuring seven Olympians—kicks off Friday at UCLA’s Spieker Aquatics Center.

Thanks to a fantastic five-goal performance by freshman Maddie Musselman—who as an 18 year-old scored 12 goals for Team USA in the Rio Olympics—the Bruins knocked off USC 11-8 on Saturday to finish with a spotless (6-0) record in MPSF play. With the win, host UCLA (20-1) earned a first day bye and will face the winner of a Friday afternoon match between Arizona State (19-6, 3-3 MPSF) and Cal (14-7, 2-4 MPSF). Stanford (18-2, 5-1 MPSF)—with Olympians Maggie Steffens and Makenzie Fischer—faces #22 CSU Bakersfield in the tournament’s opening match—11 a.m. PST.

USC (26-2, 4-2 MPSF), featuring Stephania Haralabidis, the reigning Peter J. Cutino winner, will face #16 San Jose State at 12:45 p.m. PST.

The MPSF final will be played Sunday, April 30 at 2:30 p.m. PST, with the winner guaranteed to be the top seed in the NCAA Tournament. It’s almost certain that MPSF teams will claim all three NCAA at-large spots, as they did last year.

All matches will be streamed via FloPRO.

Collegiate Water Polo Association

cwpa-women-apr-17 Out in Bloomington, Indiana, the University of Michigan— the nation’s 7th ranked team—looks to qualify for a second consecutive NCAA tournament. The Wolverines (25-8, 8-0 CWPA) have had their way with conference foes but will almost certainly face an Ashleigh Johnson-led Princeton squad (22-3; 7-1 CWPA). Johnson, after a year off backstopping Team USA in Rio, has been reunited with her sister Chelsea—the Tigers’ second leading scorer—who was a freshman in 2015 when Princeton captured its last CWPA title and NCAA berth.

Looming is dark horse #15 Hartwick (22-9, 6-2 CWPA), which gave both Princeton and Michigan tough matches.

CWPA conference play opens at noon; Princeton will face Bucknell at 1:30 p.m. EST while Michigan gets to rest up before a 6 p.m. match Friday evening.

The CWPA title game will be played at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday and it’s likely Princeton will be seeking to avenge an earlier 14-6 loss to Michigan and get to their third NCAA tournament in the last five years—all with Johnson in goal.

All matches are available via live stream.

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference

Only half of the MAAC’s eight teams qualify for their championship. The fortunate four are: Wagner (23-10, 14-0 MAAC), Virginia Military Institute (22-6, 11-3 MAAC), Marist (19-13, 11-3 MAAC), and Iona (11-13, 8-6 MAAC). The top-seeded Seahawks will look to capture an unprecedented fourth-straight MAAC title. Each time it has been Marist that they have beaten to advance to NCAAs; perhaps this is the year that the host Red Foxes and new head coach Chris Vidale get over the hump.

VMI is making its first ever appearance in the MAAC playoffs. The Keydets have enjoyed a remarkable season, playing the top-seeded Seahawks tough in two close losses, including a 13-10 OT match earlier this month, and knocking off the Red Foxes 17-15 in overtime to take second in the MAAC regular season standings.

Wagner and Iona will face off at noon on April 29 to be followed at 2 p.m. by VMI vs. Marist. The MAAC final will be on Sunday at noon in Poughkeepsie, NY.

All match information is available on the MAAC website.

Golden Coast Conference

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By virtue of a 7-0 record in conference play, #11 San Diego State (17-13) is the top seed—and therefore favored—in the Golden Coast Conference’s tournament which also begins Friday at Santa Clara University. The University of the Pacific (17-8, 6-1 GCC) is ranked #9 in the latest polls but—due to an 8-7 loss earlier this month to San Diego State—will have to face Fresno Pacific in first round action on Friday while the Aztecs rest until playing on Saturday. Their quest for a fifth-straight league title begins against the winner of the Santa Clara (8-19, 4-3 GCC) vs. Azusa Pacific (13-13, 3-4 GCC) match.

The Golden Coast Conference final is Sunday at 1:30 p.m. PST. All match information is available on the GCC website.

The Big West

#6 UC Irvine (21-6) has been the class of the Big West all season, sweeping to a regular season title on the strength of 5-0 record in conference play. The Anteaters—winners of 12 straight—were awarded a first round bye, as was #10 Hawai’i. The Rainbow Wahine (14-10, 5-1) dropped two of the three matches this season to UC Irvine but played the country’s toughest schedule and pushed #2 USC to the limit before dropping a 9-8 decision to the visiting Trojans.

Held on the UC Davis campus, The Big West title game is on Sunday at 2 p.m. PST. All match information is available on the Big West website.

Western Water Polo Association

#18 UC San Diego is the clear favorite in the WWPA tournament, and—along with Cal State East Bay—earned a first round bye. The Tritons (17-14, 3-0 WWPA) are looking for their fifth straight NCAA berth and have never lost to the Pioneers (12-12, 2-1 WWPA) in fifteen meetings, including the last three seasons in the WWPA title match.

Mercyhurst University (6-11)—not generally known as a West Coast school—will host all matches in Geneva, Ohio, with the WWPA title game scheduled for 2 p.m. EST on Sunday. All match information is available on the WWPA website.

Chances are good that UC San Diego will punch a ticket to join Cal, Michigan, Pacific, Pomona-Pitzer, Stanford, UC Irvine, UCLA, USC and Wagner for NCAAs.

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