NCAA Women’s Polo Final: Cal, UCLA Up; Hawai’i, Stanford, Me Down
The 2024 NCAA Women’s Water Polo final is set, and I’m not happy. I mean, who cares what I think because the nation’s top two teams—#1 UCLA and #3 Cal, the tournament host—are playing for a national championship. And, for the first time in FOURTEEN seasons the winner will NOT be either Stanford or USC (no offense to those great programs!).
[2024 NCAA Women’s Water Polo Tournament Central]
Oh, I’m not happy because I really thought Hawai’i had enough skill and depth to make it to the title match and become the first non-Pac 12 team to win a women’s water polo championship. It would also have earned Rainbow Wahine head coach Maureen Cole the distinction as the first female head coach in NCAA Championship game history.
That distinction now belongs to Cal’s Coralie Simmons. Her Golden Bears (18-6) came up big yesterday in front of an energized Spieker Aquatics Complex crowd for one half of the semifinal bracket. Cal fed on their fans’ energy for a six-goal explosion in the second quarter; it stunned the visiting Wahine (23-4) and dragged them down to a 9-6 defeat.
Cal’s Isabel Williams hopes to lead the Golden Bears to a first-ever women’s title.
Cal, behind Isabel Williams, their All-American goalie, will face top-seeded and undefeated UCLA and Lauren Steele, their all-world freshman in tonight’s title match on ESPNU. This is a worthy pairing; UCLA has beaten everyone, including Cal twice, but have not steamrolled their competition. They play great defense and are young, hungry and committed. They survived a tough but overmatched Stanford side in yesterday’s other semifinal, scoring four times in the third period to pull away in a 10-8 win. It’s the first time the Bruins have advanced to the final since 2021, when they were blown out 18-9 by USC.
Cal has endured an even longer drought; the only other time the Golden Bears advanced to the championship match was in 2011—a 9-5 Stanford win. They may have lost six times in 2024—including twice to UCLA by a combined total of four goals—but Williams and her teammates have only given up double-digits in goals three times: San Jose State, Hawai’i and the Bruins.
They will match-up against a UCLA squad (25-0) whose defense has gotten stronger as the season went on. After giving up double digits in goals in three of their first seven matches, the Bruins went twelve straight matches—including through their MPSF schedule—allowing 10 goals or less until a 13-10 victory over Cal in the MPSF Championship final.
Much as I don’t like it, this is the championship that was meant to be. UCLA is unbeaten because they’re really good. Cal is in the final because they won the games that mattered most—including beating Stanford twice late in the season and then Hawai’i yesterday.
If the Bruins win they will be only the second UCLA women’s polo team to go undefeated; the other was the 2008 side, coached by Adam Krikorian, that went 33-0 on its way to the fourth of five-straight NCAA titles.
If Cal wins, they become the first team other than Stanford, UCLA or USC to win it all.
As for Coach Cole, yesterday was her last match leading Hawai’i. She announced at the beginning of the season that she’d be stepping down. Everything was in place for an amazing exit; her most talented team in 12 seasons as head coach, an Olympic year hamstringing her top opponents, and the momentum of her retirement.
The Wahine, with assistant James Robinson taking the head coaching reins, should be in the title hunt as soon as next season. For Cole, a new chapter begins, and the sport is all the poorer for her departure,