INDIANAPOLIS -- The NCAA Women’s Water Polo Committee has announced the 10 teams that will be vying for the 2016 National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship. The top six teams have been placed in the bracket; the remaining four teams will compete for the last two berths in the bracket via two play-in games.
The play-in games will be conducted May 10 at Canyonview Pool at the University of California, San Diego. The winners will advance to the championship, which will be held May 13-15 at the Spieker Aquatics Center in Los Angeles, California. University of California, Los Angeles, will serve as the host institution. The 2016 championship will be an eight-team, single-elimination tournament (12 games), with a losers’ bracket to determine places three through eight.
In the play-in games, UC San Diego (26-9) will host Whittier College (25-7). The winner will be placed in the championship bracket to play UCLA (24-4) in Game 1. In the other play-in game, San Diego State University (16-16) will play Wagner College (29-9), with the winner advancing to the championship bracket to play University of Southern California (23-0) in Game 3. Both play-in games will be hosted by UC San Diego.
Rounding out the bracket will be Stanford University (21-5) facing University of California, Santa Barbara (18-12) in Game 2 and the University of Michigan (29-6) competing against Arizona State University (19-7) in the fourth game. Please reference the championship bracket for all game times.
Automatic qualifiers were awarded to the Big West Conference (UC Santa Barbara), Collegiate Water Polo Association (Michigan), Golden Coast Conference (San Diego St.), Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (Wagner), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (Southern California), Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (Whittier), and the Western Water Polo Association (UC San Diego). The remaining three teams were selected at large without geographical restrictions.
For more information about the National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship and the 2016 championship bracket, log on to NCAA.com.
