I do not remember seeing Lauren Steele at any of UCLA’s three games last week. I only saw Joey Niz suited up along with their third string goalie.
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Good question, sacareawaterpolofan.
Big West Conference. Hawaii is the favorite. I think LBSU is the only other school that could win the conference. LBSU has a solid group of starting field players and an impressive freshman goalie from Ukraine. They easily beat LMU in late January but, playing without their very good center defender, lost to U.C. Irvine and Fresno State in the Barbara Kalbus Invitational. LBSU has played two games against Hawaii, losing each time by two goals.
CWPA. Michigan and Harvard are the co-favorites. Princeton is my darkhorse candidate. Michigan beat Harvard by one goal in February and plays Princeton on Saturday. Michigan has had a much more difficult schedule than Harvard and Princeton and that experience will be an advantage in the CWPA tournament. Harvard has wins over Princeton, Indiana, and UCSD. Princeton has underachieved this year, losing to Indiana and San Diego State last week. With all due respect to Derek Ellingson, it didn’t help when Princeton decided after the 2024 season that Dusty Litvak would no longer serve as an assistant coach of the women’s team (at the same time, Princeton decided that Ellingson would no longer serve as an assistant coach of the men’s team). Litvak is a top-five college coach. The women’s team misses him.
Golden Coast Conference. LMU is the favorite. I think Fresno State is the second-best team in the conference. They have had an up-and-down season, beating Michigan, U.C. Irvine, LBSU, and U.C. Davis, but losing to Indiana, Marist, and LMU. On a good day, San Diego State is capable of beating schools ranked higher than they are, but I don’t see them beating both LMU and Fresno State in the conference tournament.
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@jeff thank you for the thorough look at this! there’s been a few “close calls” for higher ranked teams in these conferences this season. i wouldn’t mind seeing some upsets/new blood emerge in these conference tourneys. it’s good for the sport!
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**March 18, 2026—**Santa Clara University is currently investigating allegations of hazing by and among members of the women’s water polo team. The University considers the safety of our students of paramount importance and takes allegations of hazing very seriously, consistent with the University’s Policy Prohibiting Hazing.
While the investigation is ongoing, the University notified the team late this afternoon that, effective immediately, due to the nature of the preliminary findings, the team will not participate in the remainder of the women’s water polo 2026 season. The University will take appropriate action based on the outcome of the investigation.
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This is sad for so many athletes.
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Hawaii gave USC a tough game yesterday, losing 14-13. The game was tied at 11 after 3 quarters.
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USC usually plays more games in a season than Stanford. However, the discepancy this year is greater than normal. USC has already played more games (20) than Stanford will play the entire season, even if Stanford wins the NCAA championship (18). Stanford played 26 games last year. Does anyone know why Stanford scheduled so few games this year?
I watched that game on ESPN. Hawaii took an early lead and USC came back to tie. It looked like USC was missing one of their key starters, not sure if Hawaii was at full strength. Hawaii has given both Cal and USC good games, so they are peaking at the right time.
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May not be true, however I heard nobody wanted to play them because it may drop their rankings, LOL…but with all that talent, they’d prob still beat eveyone by playing less than 20 games snd still win another title . Then agian who knows really….
I can think of a few reasons they would play less. To me when you are a top team, less is more. They can benefit more from their own scrimmages than playing more games against lesser opponents. I’ve seen some Mens teams do that in recent years.
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Cant wait for the finals!
Was the refereeing out of control, or just one of those games? It looks like there were 28 exclusions, with 10 of them being penalties. I don’t know that I have ever seen 10 penalties in one game
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I watched a lot of the game on espn+ . Some of the 5 meters were called with minimal contact and maybe no foul at all really but SC was countering hard and fast and were getting behind Hawaii’s defense, and SC was making good quick entry passes, and reffs were calling it.
The hawaii coach even mentioned in the interview, after the game, that he has to work on ways to slow down the USC type counter.
Princeton 9, Michigan 8
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Big win for Princeton!
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Yes, that is a really good win for Princeton in what has been a fairly tough year for them so far. The CWPA is really up for grabs this year between them, Michigan and Harvard.
I am braving the heat in Westwood today. UCLA up 7-1 over Harvard at the end of the 1st. Steele is in goal for UCLA today.
I am watching the USC vs Stanford stream. Wes is doing a great job announcing. It is a great back and forth game so far, USC up early, 4-2, then Stanford took an 8-5 lead. Heading into the 4th quarter with Stanford up 8-7.
USC wins 11-10. Great win for USC. Flynn ties it with an amazing drive with 35 seconds left, Ausmus puts USC up by 1 with 10 seconds with an amazing shot over Flynn and Dhalluin hits the bar with an open shot at time expires.
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What a great game and good win for USC… back to a subject of a couple of days ago concerning the number of games teams play. I disagree with one person who said that fewer games can be better for top teams-playing more games against good opponents can only help. Scheduling fewer games, to me, is a way to hide from competition and is a strategy. I think it will ultimately end up hurting Stanford. UCLA men played more games last season than any other team-and it showed in the end.
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If you disagree then you don’t understand what I was saying. The big 4 don’t need to schedule games against weak opponents just to hit a certain number of games. They play each other 3 to 4 times a season and that’s enough to prepare for NCAAs. I’d say the same about youth water polo. The better clubs would do better scrimmaging against each other a couple times a month than playing in a tournament every weekend. You want quality reps
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