NO. 4 CAL (16-8) AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
MAY 10-12 | AVERY AQUATIC CENTER | STANFORD, CALIF.
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2019 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
FRIDAY, MAY 10 - QUARTERFINALS
Game 1: No. 1 USC (26-1) vs. UCSD (22-13), 12 p.m.
Game 2: No. 4 Cal (16-8) vs. Hawai'i (18-5), 1:45 p.m.
Game 3: No. 2 Stanford (20-2) vs. Pacific (18-8), 3:30 p.m.
Game 4: No. 3 UCLA (23-6) vs. Michigan (23-8). 5:15 p.m.

SATURDAY, MAY 11 - SEMIFINALS
Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 3 p.m.
Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 5 p.m.

SUNDAY, MAY 12 - CHAMPIONSHIP
Semifinal winners, 3 p.m.


 

BEARS AND THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Bears are making their third consecutive NCAA Championships appearance, fifth in the past six years and seventh in program history. Cal is 9-7 all-time in the tournament, and has advanced to at least the semifinals in every NCAA Championships in which it has participated. The Bears' best finish came in 2011 when they made the NCAA title game.

MPSF CHAMPIONSHIPS RECAP
Cal took fourth at the MPSF Championships at Stanford, defeating fifth-seeded San Jose State in the first round before dropping close contests to No. 1 Stanford and No. 3 UCLA. Junior All-American Emma Wright scored a whopping seven goals against the Spartans, tying for the second-biggest output in a single game in school history. The Bears cut into a sizable deficit against Stanford before finally losing 11-9, then were edged 7-6 by the Bruins in a match in which All-Americna goalie Madison Tagg made a career-high 18 saves. Wright was named to the All-Tournament Team.

CAL WELL-REPRESENTED ON ALL-MPSF TEAM
The Bears placed four players on the 2019 All-MPSF Team, with junior Emma Wright leading the way with a First Team selection. Senior goalie Madison Tagg was named to the Second Team for her first career All-MPSF honor and was joined by sophomore Kitty Lynn Joustra. Sophomore Brigit Mulder earned Honorable Mention. Wright, who received All-MPSF honorable mention in each of her first two seasons at Cal, ranks second in the conference with 2.95 goals per game and has 62 goals overall - the most by a Cal player since Doral Antal netted 69 in 2015. Tagg led the MPSF in saves during conference game with an average of 10.89 and is coming off a career-high 18-save performance against UCLA in the Third Place Game of the MPSF Championships. Joustra, an All-MPSF Honorable Mention pick last year, ranks third on the team with 30 goals from the center position. Mulder is second on the Bears wtih 36 goals.

THE WRIGHT STUFF
After deferring to All-Americans and Olympians Dora Antal and Anna Illes during the first two years of her career, junior Emma Wright has emerged as one of the nation's top players in 2019. Her 62 goals are the most by a Cal player since Antal's 69 in 2015, and she needs just two more to break into the program's all-time top-10 list in single-season scoring. Wright ranks second in the MPSF at 2.95 goals per game and is coming off an All-Tournament Team performance at the MPSF Championships in which she scored 11 goals - including seven in the first round against San Jose State. Wright also now has 149 career goals to put her in 10th place on Cal's career scoring list.

TAGG TEAM
Goalie Madison Tagg opened a lot of eyes last season in her first full season as starter, and this year she has simply established herself as one of the top goalies in the country. The senior leads the MPSF in saves during conference games and was named to the All-MPSF Second Team. Tagg averaged 13.5 saves in two games against No. 1 USC this season. She was an ACWPC All-American Honorable Mention as a junior in 2018 and ranks sixth on the school's all-time saves list with 460 in her career.

NEW CONTRIBUTORS
With the departure of nearly half of their scoring from last season, the Bears have turned to some less-usual suspects to carry some of the load this season. Leading that effort is sophomore Brigit Mulder, who ranks second on the team with 36 goals after scoring eight times in 14 games last year. Senior Sarah Siepker, who scored 26 total goals during her first three years at Cal, has 27 alone this season. Junior Hannah DeRose has scored 18 goals after tallying 15 during her first two seasons.

NEW-LOOK STAFF
Head Coach Coralie Simmons welcomed two new assistant coaches during the offseason, as Molly Barnes and Lazar Andric joined the staff. Barnes served as the head coach at Cal State Northridge for eight seasons while Andric is a former All-American goalie at Cal who has been a member of the Bears' men's water polo staff for the past two years.

END OF AN ERA
Last year marked the departure of one of the most accomplished senior classes in program history, as four of the six seniors who graduated were All-Americans. That included Cal's all-time leading scorer Dora Antal, who became just the third player in NCAA women's water polo history to be honored as a four-time First Team All-American. Anna Illes, another four-time All-American, left the Bears ranked No. 7 on the team's all-time scoring list while Carla Carrega and Kindred Paul were two-time All-Americans. 

ABOUT NO. 5 HAWAI'I
• Rainbow Wahine are making their first NCAA Championships appearance since 2015 and sixth in program history
• Hawai'i earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships by winning the Big West Conference Tournament championship
• Senior Irene Gonzalez was named the Big West Player of the Year for the second consecutive season
• Hawai'i's Maureen Cole was named the Big West Coach of the Year for the third time in eight seasons
• The Rainbow Wahine's win over Cal on March 29 was their first over the Bears since 2016
CAL ALL-TIME VS. HAWAI'I: 33-11