UCLA Women’s Water Polo Opens NCAA Tournament Against Michigan

Now, the real women’s water polo season begins.

After playing the regular season to determine the seedings for this weekend’s NCAA Women’s Water Polo Tournament, it all comes down to the next few days as the UCLA women’s water polo team chases UCLA’s 118th national championship.

It won’t be easy. Tonight, the Bruins play a Michigan team which finished the regular season with a 23-8 mark. The good news for UCLA fans is that two of those eight losses the Wolverines had this season came against the Bruins. On January 20, UCLA topped Michigan, 9-7, at the UCSB Invitational. Then, on February 23, the Bruins won 15-5 at the Barbara Kalbus Invitational at UC Irvine.

Tonight, the teams meet again at the Avery Aquatic Center where Stanford is hosting this year’s NCAA Tournament.

The winner of tonight’s game won’t have an easy road to the title game because they will play the second-seeded Stanford Cardinal in tomorrow’s second semifinal game. The Cardinal cruised past Pacific, 18-9, earlier today. Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, top-seeded Southern Cal crushed UC San Diego, 14-8 and third-seeded UC Berkeley got past Hawai’i, 17-13. That means that the #1, #2 and #4 seeds all advanced and, now, it’s up to the #3 Bruins to do the same.

This is your UCLA Bruins vs. Michigan Wolverines NCAA Women’s Water Polo Quarterfinals open thread.


Go Bruins!!!