Every sign points to top-seeded UCLA as the overwhelming favorite at this weekend’s NCAA women’s water polo championship in Palo Alto. The Bruins won all 30 of their games this season and have won the past three NCAA Championships and five of seven NCAA titles since the tournament started in 2001.
But coach Adam Krikorian doesn’t see things so positively.
“The chances are one out of eight,” Krikorian said, referring to the eight teams in this weekend’s field. “We’re not thinking about (being the favorite), you have to take it one game at a time, and we just want to play the best water polo we can play.”
The tournament begins Friday when UCLA will take on No. 8 seed Pomona-Pitzer. The Bruins beat Pomona 22-0 in last year’s NCAA opening round.
The top eight teams in the country received bids to the championship. Five teams were awarded automatic bids as winners of their conferences: No. 8 Pomona-Pitzer (Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference), No. 5 UC Davis (Western Water Polo Association), No. 6 Michigan (Collegiate Water Polo Association) and No. 7 Marist (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference), along with UCLA, which won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament last weekend in San Diego.
The biggest threats to UCLA are actually the teams that received at-large bids: No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 USC and No. 4 San Diego State. Including UCLA, each of the top four teams has a storied program and nationally ranked players, and the most hotly contested games will likely come between those four teams.
For the Bruins, this weekend marks the opportunity for their sixth championship in eight years. UCLA completed their 2007-08 season a perfect 30-0, and won the MPSF for the second consecutive season.
Regardless, the Bruins said they’re not feeling any added pressure from their undefeated season or their streak of championships.
“There is always pressure being an athletic team at UCLA, so we try not to focus on that,” senior Courtney Mathewson said.
Two of UCLA’s starting players, Mathewson and junior Tanya Gandy, were named co-MPSF players of the year. Mathewson and fellow senior Jillian Kraus are also two of the three finalists for the Peter J. Cutino Award, given annually to the top collegiate men’s and women’s water polo players.
Host Stanford (25-4) may prove to be the biggest threat to end the Bruins’ streak.
Finishing second in the MPSF (11-1, losing only to UCLA) and coming off a hard third-place finish in the conference tournament, the Cardinal will look for retribution. The team features junior Lauren Silver ““ the third Cutino finalist ““ and freshman goalkeeper and MPSF Newcomer of the Year, Amber Oland. The team is coached by John Tanner, who was recently named MPSF Co-Coach of the Year, an honor he shared with Krikorian.
This will be the Cardinal’s eighth appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Stanford has won just once, in 2002.
And it isn’t the only rival UCLA will have to fend off this weekend.
Third-seeded USC nearly upset the Bruins in the MPSF tournament before ultimately falling 8-7. Like Stanford, the Trojans have taken home the trophy just once, in 2004.
For the past two years at the NCAA Tournament, the Trojans’ hopes for victory have been shattered by one-goal losses to UCLA.
In 2006, USC lost in the finals when Mathewson scored the tie-breaking goal at the buzzer to win it for the Bruins. Last year the Trojans lost in the semifinals against the Bruins.
Rounding out the top four is No. 4 San Diego State (29-6). The Aztecs placed fifth in the past weekend’s MPSF tournament but still secured an at-large berth for the second consecutive year. Their best showing was as runner-up in 1995, their first year competing as a varsity program before the women’s water polo championship was a part of the NCAAs.
While they might seem overshadowed by UCLA, Stanford and USC, San Diego State should not be counted out. The Aztecs have one of the top shooters in the MPSF, junior Jenna Schuster, and two other Aztecs were named to the MPSF second team.
“The tough thing is preparing for the teams,” Krikorian said. “We’re preparing ultimately for four opponents. We’re preparing for UC Davis, San Diego State, Stanford and USC.”