April 30, 2007
Indianapolis, IN - The NCAA Women's Water Polo Committee has announced the teams that will participate in the 2007 National Collegiate Women's Water Polo Championship. The championship will be held May 11-13 at Joint Forces Training Base, in Los Alamitos, California. Long Beach State University will serve as the host institution. The 2007 National Collegiate Women's Water Polo Championship will be an eight-team, single-elimination tournament (12 games), with a losers' bracket to determine places three through eight.
Stanford (25-2) was awarded the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament and will play No. 8 seed Wagner (17-13) on Friday May 11th at 5:00 PM. UCLA (25-2), the MPSF Conference Champion was awarded the No. 2 seed and will face No. 7 seed Pomona-Pitzer (20-9) in the first round of competition. No. 3 seed was awarded to USC (20-5) and they will play No. 6 Hartwick in the first round. In the last game of the eight team tournament, No. 4 seed San Diego State (27-8) will play No. 5 Loyola Marymount (26-5).
Stanford Coach John Tanner was very pleased with the selection and likes his teams' chances entering the eight team round robin tournament:
"Over the course of the season our goal was to achieve the number one overall seed and we were able to do that. While we were disappointed with our play yesterday UCLA is an amazing team that is big and fast and also heavy on experience. UCLA looked terrific and we didn't bring our A game."
Coach Tanner also looks forward to the NCAA Tournament and the challenges it will bring:
"In the NCAA Tournament format, it takes three games to win and only one game to be knocked out of the tournament. We know we need to bring our A game at this point in the season if we want to accomplish our goal of a National Championship."
This is the seventh National Collegiate Women's Water Polo Championship. In the 2006 Championship game, UCLA won its eighth women's water polo championship, defeated USC 9-8.
For more information about the National Women's Water Polo Championship and the complete 2007 championship bracket, log onto www.ncaasports.com
Friday May 11th:
No. 2 UCLA vs. No. 7 Pomona-Pitzer 1:30 PM PT
No. 3 USC vs. No. 6 Hartwick 3:15 PM PT
No. 1 Stanford vs. No. 8 Wagner 5:00 PM PT
No. 4 San Diego State vs. No. 5 Loyola Marymount 6:45 PM PT