Cal Women's Water Polo beats Stanford, faces USC for NCAA title (6 pm PT, ESPNU)
Golden Bears upsets No.1 Stanford 13-11 in NCAA semifinals on Saturday
Two Cal programs played in their respective national semifinals on Saturday. While few will be surprised to learn that defending national champion and No.1 ranked Cal Rugby defeated rival St. Mary’s 59-19 to advance to the D1A National Championship next Saturday in Indianapolis against Navy (we will have more on this mid-week), No.4 Cal Women’s Water Polo also booked its spot in the NCAA championship final with a 13-11 victory over rival and defending national champ, No.1 Stanford. I thought St. Mary’s had a better shot at beating Cal Rugby than Cal Women’s Water Polo against Stanford.
As I wrote on Friday, Cal Women’s Water Polo has been the clear 4th best team all season by beating every one other than the top-3 teams of Stanford, UCLA, and USC this season. That sadly has also been the NCAA packing order in women’s water polo, with only those three schools winning all of the national championship titles. That may finally change this weekend.
Cal defeating Hawaii 15-10 in Friday’s quarterfinal was expected. That win set up the Big Splash rematch in the semifinal between Cal and Stanford, the defending national champion with several prominent members of the US National Team. Cal not being able to tap into the successful US National Team pipeline as much as its three California rivals has kept the Golden Bears firmly in that 4th place as the best of the rest. The hiring of current Cal head coach Coralie Simmons, now in her 10th season, was supposed to change this, but has had only limited effects thus far, with only junior national team members (Bonaguidi and Hassett) coming to Cal.
Yet when the match was over on Saturday afternoon from the campus of UCSD, the Golden Bears were the ones celebrating an improbable victory over their rival and the opportunity to potentially win that elusive first NCAA championship in program history.
If you have a little bit of time, I would recommend watching the replay of the match from halftime.
The match was tied 7-7 at the half after the Golden Bears did not allow Stanford to run away with this match despite an early 4-2 edge. Stanford’s USA Olympian Jenna Flynn already got a hat-trick at the half. Meanwhile, Cal’s leading scorer, freshman Despoina Drakotou, got two exclusions already (three meant a disqualification for the rest of the match) and had limited effect since scoring the match’s first goal.
Whatever was said at the half worked. Cal Bears came out firing early in the 3rd quarter. Back in the California Golden Blogs days, there had been times when I would parody those “keys of the game” with obvious and vague things like “make shots”. But there are definite benefits to being the first team to make those shots, as Cal did early in the second half. Stanford rushed some possessions and became too physical defensively to give Cal several power-play opportunities. Rosalie Hassett, a surprising Julianne Snyder, Julia Bonaguidi, Eszter Varro - who had a brilliant game as the Cal center drawing quite a few exclusions, and senior Abbi Magee scored the first five goals to give Cal a 12-7 lead.
Stanford, of course, would not simply go away. Cardinal did manage to make things nerve-wracking by scoring the next three goals. It did not help that Drakotou fouled out after picking up her 3rd exclusion early in the 4th quarter. Nonetheless, Stanford had to be perfect to overcome the 5-goal deficit, and they were not. A 4th-quarter goal from Maria Bogachenko and some fine defensive play from Feline Voordouw ahead of Cal keeper Talia Fonseca, who only needed to record two saves for the match, sealed the victory.
Cal defeated Stanford for the first time in the postseason. It was an inspiring performance that I kind of wished that I had seen just before I had to face the super champ Jamie Ding on Jeopardy! That was taped in late February, but since the episode aired last week, it is still fresh on my mind.
I do not think it is much of a hyperbole to call this win the biggest one in program history. Taking down the clear top team in the country in Stanford (15-2), who also happened to be the biggest rival, is certainly sweet. Now the California Golden Bears (16-7) got one more step to take.
On Sunday at 6 pm PT, No.4 Cal will face No.2 USC Trojans (24-3) in the 2026 NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championship Final. USC edged rival UCLA 11-10 in the second semifinal.
Trojans have a 15-12 neutral site, a 14-10 home, and a 17-14 road (MPSF tournament hosted by Cal) wins over Cal this year. Like Stanford, USC also has a couple of current US National team members, including 2024 US Olympian Emily Ausmus, who happens to be the MPSF Player of the Year.
Team USA Women’s Water Polo only finished 4th in the 2024 Paris Games after three straight gold medals. Having those Olympians may not be as much of an edge as in the recent past. USC’s Ava Stryker and Rachel Gazzaniga are also current members of Team USA, which includes recent Cal graduate Isabel Williams as the goalkeeper. Cal certainly has more players who are looking to make the USA Senior Team ahead of the LA 2028 games.
This would only be Cal’s 3rd NCAA championship final after 2011 and 2024. The 2024 season was an Olympic-impacted one where many top players took a redshirt year. All the teams are at full strength this season, making a potential championship breakthrough mean that much more.
It always felt inevitable that Cal Women’s Water Polo would eventually win a national title. Cal Aquatics programs are well-funded. Cal is confident going into this final. The talent gap between Cal and the top team has closed enough that the Golden Bears have that belief. If they can continue to play free and execute when needed, I will not be surprised if tonight is that long-overdue arrival of Cal into the championship circle of NCAA women’s water polo.
2026 NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championship Final: No.4 Cal (16-7) vs. No.2 USC (24-3)
When: Sunday, April 26th, 6 PM PT
Where: Canvonview Aquatic Center (La Jolla, CA - host UCSD)
TV: ESPNU
GO BEARS!
Off topic: From Jeopardy I learned that “Ruey” is pronounced “Ray”.
Cal Women’s Water Polo — getting hot when it matters most! Go Bears! Beat SC!