INDIANAPOLIS —The NCAA Women’s Water Polo Committee has announced the 10 teams that will be vying for the 2018 National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship. Six teams have been placed in the bracket; the remaining four teams will compete for the last two berths in the bracket via two opening-round games.
The opening-round games will be conducted Tuesday, May 8 at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center on the campus of the University of Southern California. The winners will advance to the championship, which will be held May 11-13 also at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center. The 2018 championship will be an eight-team, single-elimination tournament (seven games).
RELATED: 2018 NC Women's Water Polo bracket
In the opening round games, UC San Diego (24-11) will play Wagner (24-6). The winner will be placed in the championship bracket to play Southern California (23-1) in Game 1. In the other opening round game, UC Irvine (14-13) will play Pomona-Pitzer (21-10), with the winner advancing to the championship bracket to play Stanford (18-3) in Game 3.
Rounding out the bracket will be UCLA (22-7) facing Pacific (18-7) in Game 2 and California (19-5) competing against Michigan (32-8) in Game 4. Please reference the championship bracket for all game times.
| SCHOOL | QUALIFIER |
|---|---|
| No. 1 Southern California | MPSF automatic bid |
| No. 2 Stanford | At-large qualifier |
| No. 3 California | At-large qualifier |
| No. 4 UCLA | At-large qualifier |
| UC Irvine | Big West automatic bid |
| UC San Diego | WWPA automatic bid |
| Wagner | MAAC automatic bid |
| Pacific | Golden Coast Conference automatic bid |
| Pomona-Pitzer | SCIAC automatic bid |
| Michigan | CWPA automatic bid |
Automatic qualifiers were awarded to the Big West Conference (UC Irvine), Collegiate Water Polo Association (Michigan), Golden Coast Conference (Pacific), Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (Wagner), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (Southern California), Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (Pomona-Pitzer) 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 2018 championship bracket, log on to ncaa.com.