West Coast Water Polo Bubbles Up In New York City
Yesterday I spotted Gus McCallister on the Lower East Side—he’s the one wearing the Stanford Water Polo t-shirt. Spying a Cardinal water polo symbol—unusual in our vast metropolis—spurred me to stop and say hello.
Gus goes to Bates (note the hat); it’s his sister who goes to Stanford (and does not play water polo). More significantly, he had no idea about The Big Splash, the regular season-ending contest between Cal and Stanford women’s polo programs, which took place last Friday. As a Stanford representative perhaps it's a match he’d want to forget; Cal (15-5; 4-2 MPSF) registered its biggest margin of victory over its archrival since 1997—before John Tanner arrived on The Farm and spawned a collegiate polo dynasty.
The Golden Bears’ 11-6 win was eye-opening. Isabel Williams, Cal’s All-American goalie, was brilliant with 15 saves, helping to hold Stanford to its lowest scoring total this season. Elena Flynn, a transfer from UC-Irvine, torched the Cardinal for five goals to pad her season total to 38, tops on the squad.
Cal’s Isabel Williams was dominant in goal against Stanford. Photo: Cal Athletics
Friday’s win was payback for a 7-6 Stanford victory on the last day of the 2024 Barbara Kalbus tournament, almost two months ago. It also snapped a string of dominance by the Cardinal (16-5; 4-2 MPSF), who had won the previous seven contests and 15 of the last 16 matches between the programs.
The loss may also prove damaging to Stanford’s hopes for an NCAA three-peat, though perhaps those dreams were dashed before the season even started. Four critical Cardinals—Jenna Flynn (Elena’s sister), Ryann Neushel, Jewel Roemer and Ella Woodhead—skipped a spring in Palo Alto to train with the US Women’s National Team in search of spots for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris. No team in collegiate water polo could lose its four best players; in fact, only Stanford donated so many collegians to Team USA’s pursuit of a fourth consecutive gold.
The loss puts the Cardinal on a collision path with Cal in the semifinals of the upcoming Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament, to be played this weekend in Bloomington, Indiana. The Big West Tournament is the same weekend at UC-Davis, where #2 ranked Hawai’i will be jousting with UC-Irvine, Long Beach State and others for their conference’s NCAA automatic berth. Another loss to the Golden Bears, coupled with an upset in The Big West may mean that Stanford will sit out this year’s national championship tournament.
It’s not likely, but NCAA postseasons are often full of surprises.The Rainbow Wahine (19-3) dominated conference foes in the regular season, racing to a 7-0 Big West record and a goal differential of +61. Still, there’s no guarantee Hawai’i will take the Big West title; the Anteaters and The Beach are very capable of knocking them off. Were this to happen, it would be stunning if the NCAA seeding committee didn’t reward Hawai’i with an at-large bid for its full season of success.
If that were to happen, there would only be two NCAA at-large bids available for three MPSF teams; the conference awards an automatic berth to the winner of the conference tournament.
The other Big Four teams, USC and UCLA, were playing a grudge match of their own this weekend in Los Angeles. The host Trojans (17-6; 4-2 MPSF) had a lot to play for, including a chance to blemish the perfect season (21-0; 6-0 MPSF) of the Bruins, their crosstown rivals. More pressing; a win would almost ensure they would not be the odd man out of NCAAs.
Lauren Steele has backstopped UCLA to a perfect record. Photo: UCLA Athletics
USC played UCLA even for two and a half periods; midway through the third the score was tied at five. Neither team got more than a goal ahead until the Bruins netted scores a minute apart to close out the third period, then blanked the Trojans for the final eight minutes, registering a 7-5 victory and extending their season-opening winning streak. USC is now seeded fourth in the MPSF tournament; they have a not-so-easy match-up against #5 Arizona State likely followed by a rematch in the semifinals against UCLA—well-rested thanks to a bye in the first round.
Cal is vulnerable as well but as the #2 MPSF seed—and likely #3 team in the nation in this week’s Collegiate Water Polo Association Women’s Varsity Poll—the Golden Bears have a stronger claim to a berth than either the Cardinal or the Trojans.
If Stanford doesn’t advance, it will be the first time since 2001 they didn’t make NCAAs. USC missing out would snap a streak of 19-straight NCAA appearances which includes five straight finals. If Cal does not qualify it will not be such a shock; the Golden Bears sat out the 2016 tournament, the last time all the Big Four did not go to NCAAs.