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USC Women’s Water Polo Earns 20th Straight Spot In NCAA Action

by usctrojans.com
Apr 29, 2024

USC women's water polo has secured its 20th consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, locked in for action at the 2024 National Collegiate Women's Water Polo Championship, which will be held May 10-12 at Spieker Aquatics Complex in Berkeley, Calif. Coming off a fourth-place finish at the competitive MPSF Tournament, the Trojans carry an 18-8 overall record into NCAA action, where they will be on the hunt for an eighth national championship.

USC has been a top-five team all season and finished in a three-way tie for second place in the MPSF regular season. Under the direction of head coach Casey Moon for the first season, USC had five Trojans earn All-MPSF honors this year, including first-time honorees Julia Janov (First Team), Alejandra Aznar (Second Team), Rachel Gazzaniga (Honorable Mention and All-Newcomer Team) and Ava Stryker (All-Newcomer Team). Aznar and goalie Carolyne Stern are USC's returning All-Americans for a 2024 Trojan team averaging 12.2 goals per game and allowing 7.8 goals-against per game to date. Freshmen Gazzaniga and Stryker lead the team in scoring with 49 and 48 goals, respectively, with Janov and Aznar next in line with 45 and 44 each, respectively. 

USC's last NCAA title was won in 2021, when current Trojans Stern and Brooklyn Aguilera were sophomores and Abigail Hendrix, Hannah Meyer and Janov were true freshmen. USC has reached five consecutive NCAA finals entering this 2024 event.

Winners of seven previous national championships, USC holds a 41-14 all-time record in NCAA tournaments. Last year, the Trojans were the No. 2 seeds with a 26-2 record after a second-place finish in the 2023 MPSF Tournament. After opening 2023 NCAA competition with a 12-9 win over Fresno State, USC beat Princeton 18-8 in the semifinals. That brought up the NCAA title match between USC and Stanford, which saw the Cardinal take the trophy with an 11-9 decision. Since 2010, every women's NCAA title has been won by either USC or Stanford.

USC's first national title came in 1999 before the NCAA sponsored women's water polo. In 2004, USC posted the first-ever undefeated season on the way to capturing the 2014 NCAA title. USC's third title came in 2010 — the last time the Trojans swept the MPSF coach, player and newcomer awards — in a championship won over Stanford. Three years later in 2013, the Trojans topped the Cardinal in tripe sudden-death overtime — the longest NCAA final in history — to claim a fourth national championship for USC. In another three years, USC was back on top once more, posting a second undefeated season en route to the 2016 NCAA Championship in another epic battle against Stanford. The 2018 campaign brought USC its sixth crown in a defensive 5-4 win over Stanford at the Trojans' Uytengsu Aquatics Center. In 2021, USC overpowered UCLA with an 18-9 final win that set an NCAA record for goals scored and margin of victory in a final and secured USC's seventh national championship.

This year's National Collegiate field includes six automatic qualifiers from conference championships and three at-large teams. Seven teams qualify directly to the championship field, and the remaining two teams will compete in an Opening Round game on May 5 or 8. That winner will advance to quarterfinal games set for May 10, with semifinals held May 11 and the NCAA Championship game set for 7 p.m. on May 12. All games will be played at Cal's Spieker Aquatics Complex. Quarterfinals and semifinals will stream live on NCAA.com, and the NCAA Championship game will be televised on ESPNU and streamed on ESPN+.

Earning automatic berths this year are UCLA (MPSF), Princeton (CWPA), Fresno State (Golden Coast), Hawai'i (Big West), Biola (WWPA) and Wagner (MAAC). This year's at-large teams are California, Stanford and USC — all out of the MPSF.

 

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