Stanford won the 2019 NC women's water polo championship in a 9-8 thriller against defending national champion Southern California. Both teams advanced to the championship after overtime wins in the semifinals. NCAA WATER POLO: 2019 NC women's water polo championship bracket | Printable bracket It's Stanford's seventh national title in program history since the women's water polo national championships began in 2001. The Cardinal's Makenzie Fischer led the way in the title match with three goals and an assist. USC clinched its spot in the finals with a 10-8 victory over Cal in overtime. Stanford followed with a tight 8-7 win in extra time over UCLA to complete the finals matchup. USC and Stanford were the top two seeds in the 2019 tournament. The tournament began May 7 with two first-round games: Wagner vs. UC San Diego and Pacific vs. Cal Lutheran. UC San Diego defeated Wagner 12-8 to earn the chance to play top seed USC in the quarterfinals while Pacific took down Cal Lutheran 16-4 to play Stanford. In the quarterfinals, USC took down San Diego, California topped Hawaii, Stanford defeated Pacific and UCLA outlasted Michigan to round out the day. 2019 NC women's water polo championship schedule NCAA.com will live stream Sunday's national championship match. The entire tournament is being held at the Avery Aquatic Center in Stanford, California. See below for the full tournament schedule and how to watch: FULL NCAA.COM LIVE STREAMING SCHEDULE 2019 NC women's water polo championship bracket Ten teams were originally selected to the 2019 NCAA women's water polo bracket on April 29, with six getting automatic byes into the quarterfinals. The top four seeds, in order, were Southern California, Stanford, UCLA and California. See the final bracket below. INTERACTIVE BRACKET | PRINTABLE BRACKET NC women's water polo championship history Southern California won the 2018 women's water polo tournament and had the No. 1 seed in this year's tournament. Below is the full NC women's water polo championship history:<doc-sep>The Telegraph Two of the surprise packages of this clay-court season have been British – initially Dan Evans, who made a deep run in Monte Carlo, and more lately Cameron Norrie, who played his second final in three weeks on Sunday. Unfortunately, Norrie wasn’t able to land a maiden ATP title in Lyon. But then he was up against Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has been the dominant force of 2021 outside the slams, and now stands at No 1 in the table of most rankings points gained since January 1. Nevertheless, it had been a hugely creditable effort for Norrie to go this far, especially when you consider that he took out top seed Dominic Thiem on Thursday, and then trounced big-hitting Russian Karen Khachanov in Saturday’s semi-final, losing only two games in the process. Norrie has come to clay late in his career, but it feels like this is developing into his favourite surface. He has one of the heaviest left-handed forehands in the game, loaded with top-spin, and uses it like a miniature version of Rafael Nadal. The result has been a tally of 14 wins and only four losses since he began his European clay-court swing in Barcelona. So while the French Open, which starts next Sunday, has traditionally been a graveyard of British hopes, there are reasons to hope that this year’s event could deliver some more positive results. Norrie’s previous final in Estoril had been a nervewracking affair which he eventually lost on a deciding-set tie-break to the more experienced Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Sunday was more straightforward for Tsitsipas, who needed only 69 minutes to hammer home a 6-3, 6-3 victory. It was Tsitsipas’ second title of the clay-court sequence, after he won Monte Carlo in mid-April, taking out Evans in the semi-final along the way. He has become a serious contender to upset the establishment – specifically Nadal and Novak Djokovic – at Roland Garros over the next few weeks. “I felt in good shape from the beginning of the tournament,” said Tsitsipas afterwards. “I am proud of today’s match, I knew it would be a difficult one against Cameron, who has been showing great tennis this week. He has been winning against good players and showing what the left hand can do on clay. “It was not an easy match today. I had to handle the nerves and I am proud of my performance and the way I stayed focused towards my goal.” On this year’s results, meanwhile, both Evans and Norrie stand among the world’s 20 most successful men. Evans is at No 16 and Norrie No 14. The next challenge for them both is to convert that ATP Tour form into a deep run at a major.<doc-sep>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. 2019 NCAA Women’s Water Polo Tournament Quarterfinal Teams: #3 UCLA Bruins (23-6) vs. Michigan Wolverines (18-7) When: 5:15 pm PT, Friday, May 10, 2018 Where: Avery Aquatics Center, Stanford, CA TV/Radio/Audio: None Live Stream: NCAA Live Stream Live Stats: TheFosh.net Official Preview 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!! !<doc-sep>The USC women’s water polo team came close. So close. As interim head coach Casey Moon later told reporters, one change in how the ball bounced separated the Trojans from winning the national championship. But they fell short of that, losing 9-8 to Stanford (23-2) in the NCAA title game on Sunday. There were tears as USC (28-2) accepted the runner-up trophy. “Our team is truly a family,” Moon said. “And regardless, win or lose, we can look each other in the eye and say, ‘Hey, we played our best.’ And that’s what separates us.” Their resolve deepened when they lost their head coach, Jovan Vavic, in March. Two months ago, he was arrested on a charge of conspiracy to commit racketeering and fired by USC hours later. As the college admissions scandal unfolded, USC turned inward, to continue the season without its leader. Advertisement “A lot of people probably thought it was probably gonna ruin our season,” junior Kelsey McIntosh said. “But I’m so proud of how we overcame that and got so much closer, with so much more fight in us.” Winning was not just about earning back-to-back titles for the first time in program history. It was about proving that USC’s success would not end with the firing of Vavic. The championship game started as expected — a battle. Through the first half, USC and Stanford exchanged goals behind carefully crafted offensive possessions. They ended the half tied at five. Sign up for our daily sports newsletter » Aria Fischer and Paige Hauschild fouled out in the third quarter. Hauschild’s foul allowed Stanford to tie the score 8-8 on a penalty shot. The tie stretched early into the fourth quarter. During a timeout, Stanford’s fans chanted, “Where is Jovan?” “Let’s prove them wrong,” goalie Amanda Longan said before the tournament. “Let’s prove to them that, you know, we’re the ones in the water.” But Stanford took the lead halfway through the fourth quarter when freshman Ryann Neuschul hurled a shot past Longan. The Trojans outsprinted Stanford to shut down a fastbreak while stifling their scoring chances with physical defense, no matter how long the possession lasted. Advertisement “Every single girl on this team is like a sister to me,” Maud Megens said before the tournament. “And winning this championship would really be like winning it with family.” But every offensive chance the Trojans had fell flat. With less than a minute left, Megens whipped a shot from the left that the Cardinal deflected, and Stanford drained the clock to eight seconds before USC regained control and called a timeout. Megens got the ball once again. She hurled a hard shot just before the buzzer sounded to the left side of the goal. It bounced off the post. Advertisement The Cardinal leaped into the water in front of an exuberant home crowd. The Trojans swam out of the pool silently, embraced on the pool deck and stole away for a moment of privacy. When the team returned, Moon and Longan shared a long hug before Longan accepted the runner-up trophy on behalf of the Trojans. It was not the history-making ending they strived for, but they still achieved their seasonlong goal — proving that the program’s success was bigger than Vavic. That the team could still achieve excellence and play for the national title. “To the very last second of the game, we were a family,” freshman Tilly Kearns said. “And we still are a family. And that’s gonna carry through forever.” blake.richardson@latimes.com Advertisement @rblakerich_<doc-sep>
If you only watched the first half, you might have thought that Stanford cruised to an easy win over UCLA this evening in the NCAA Women’s Water Polo Semifinals. You would be wrong. That’s because the Bruins mounted what should be called an epic comeback. The first quarter totally belonged to the Cardinal. Stanford scored four goals in the first quarter while holding UCLA scoreless and the Bruins trailed 4-0 after one. Stanford made it 5-0 with the first goal of the second quarter with 3:35 left in the first half. In the next 21 seconds the tide turned completely. UCLA finally got on the scoreboard when Rachel Whitelegge scored on a powerplay and the Bruins added another powerplay goal before the end of the half when Roxy Wheaton scored with 14 seconds left. UCLA was able to maintain their momentum in the third quarter. Val Ayala cut the deficit to 5-3 with 6:34 left in the third and Maddie Musselman sliced that lead in half with 5:03 to go. Lexi Liebowitz finished the comeback when she tied the game 5-5 with 3:55 left in the quarter and that’s how the game went into the fourth quarter. It stayed tied until there was 4:11 left. That’s when Musselman netted the go-ahead goal on a Bruin powerplay and it looked like UCLA might actually win the game and advance to tomorrow’s championship game against crosstown rival Southern Cal. But, none of us here at Bruins Nation gets to write scripts for how games should end and Stanford managed to tie that game back up with just 2:49 to go. Neither team was able to score in the time remaining, but what was especially disappointing is the fact that UCLA’s final possession in regulation ended with a shot clock violation instead of a shot attempt. In water polo, overtime is played in two extra three minutes periods. Stanford scored twice in the first overtime to go up, 8-6, and that’s how the game went into the second overtime. Finally, with just 57 seconds left in the second overtime, Lexi Liebowitz scored her second goal of the game to make it, 8-7, Stanford. But, that was all that UCLA could muster and the Cardinal will play for the national championship tomorrow. It would have been easy for the Bruins to throw in the towel when the score of the game was 5-0, Stanford, but the team showed enough heart to mount an epic comeback and even take the lead late in the game. Unfortunately, they just couldn’t prevent the game-tying goal in the fourth quarter and they couldn’t generate enough offense in overtime. That’s what ultimately cost them this one. Go Bruins.