BERKELEY – The California women's water polo team will take the No. 3 seed into the 2023 NCAA Championship after receiving an at-large berth on Monday evening. The Golden Bears will face sixth-seeded Princeton in the quarterfinals on May 12.

The NCAA Championships will take place from May 10-14 at Pacific's Kjeldsen Pool at the Eberhardt Aquatics Center in Stockton.

This will be the ninth NCAA Championship appearance for the Bears, who have never failed to reach the semifinal round. They have advanced to the semifinals four times in five non-COVID years under head coach Coralie Simmons and own an 11-9 all-time record at the championship. They reached the title match and finished as runners-up in 2011.

Cal heads into its final tournament of the season with a 19-9 record coming off a thrilling 12-11 MPSF third-place game victory over No. 4 seed UCLA  – its second win over the Bruins this season – on Sunday. A win in the quarterfinals will pit the Bears against No. 2 USC, which they nearly beat in a slim 15-14 overtime defeat in March.

The Bears are led by All-MPSF First Team and Cutino Award Watch List seniors Isabel Williams and Cecily Turner. Williams is the MPSF's leader this year in saves (260), saves per game (9.29) and steals (51). On Saturday, she moved up to No. 5 all-time in saves at Cal, now with 553 for her career. Turner – the Bears' top goalscorer with 46 this season – is coming off one of her best performances of the year with a season-best four goals in Sunday's win over UCLA. It was her team-leading eighth hat trick of the year.

Cal and Princeton will play in the late game on Friday, May 12, squaring off at 6:00 p.m. PT. The Bears own a 6-0 record over the Tigers in the all-time series. This will be their first matchup since 2013.

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