"It's at home," 8-year-old Isabel said.

"OK," Schofield said. "Bring it tomorrow."

The next day, Williams got in the pool. She never got out.

Close to 15 years and thousands of hours in the water later, Williams has established herself as the top goalie in collegiate women's water polo. Last year, she became just the second Cal goalie to be named a first team All-American after recording 245 saves – the fourth-most in a single season in program history. She also ranks eighth on the team's all-time career saves list.

"She's amazing to watch," teammate and fellow All-American Ruby Swadling said. "The amount of times she has saved us when we did things wrong – you don't even realize it until you watch back film."

By the time Williams got to Cal as a mid-year enrollee in 2020, the word on her was out in water polo circles. The summer before, she played for Team USA in the FINA Junior World Championships and appeared to be on the U.S. National Team track. At 6-foot-3 with the right disposition to play goalie, it seemed to be only be a matter of time before she made an impact on the college game.

That happened last year, when she took over for fellow All-American Cassidy Ball as the Bears' starting goalie and put together one of the finest seasons in Cal history.

"Early on, you could definitely see she was physically talented," Cal head coach Coralie Simmons said. "Then it becomes how well you develop – she became a great passer and obviously really great at her position blocking the ball. Sometimes, goalies do really well in the cage but can't pass, or they do really well in the cage but don't communicate very well. She can kind of do everything well. That's what makes her really talented."

Communication has never been a problem for Williams, in or out of the pool. She has a fun-loving, goofy personality that her teammates gravitate toward, while also earning respect as a team leader when attending to the business at hand.

"I think being a leader comes very naturally to her," Swadling said. "A lot of people look up to her, in and out of the pool."

Williams has always had a big personality to accompany her physical stature, and a comfortable confidence as well. That helped her succeed when Schofield eventually elevated her to play with high school students on the club's top team while she was just 12. It also allowed her to speak her mind when her older brother Ronan's friends came to the house to visit. Ronan, who also brought his swimsuit the next day and got in the pool after watching Evangeline's practice, went on to play goalie at Navy and would sometimes bring some teammates to his family's home in nearby Severna Park, Maryland.

"All these guys on the water polo team would come and hang out at our house. It would be eight guys in our basement," said Williams' mom, Kari. "The guys would show up and Isabel would tell them, 'What are you guys doing here? This is my house.' She treated all of them like they were older brothers, and she kept them all in line."

It was only a couple of months after she arrived in Berkeley that the world – and her freshman season – were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Two months later, Williams emerged as a team leader after the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She and Georgia Gilmore were the only African American players on the team, and they worked with Cal's staff to compose a statement from the program as well as engage teammates in honest discussions during the national racial reckoning that followed.

"It was us having conversations," Williams said. "It wasn't like I need to teach someone. It wasn't like I had that responsibility. It was more conversations. I don't think I was teaching anything. I was just sharing my experiences and people were listening."

Williams acknowledges she may stand out as an African American in a predominantly white sport. The fact that she has always commanded a lot of attention because of her physical stature and personality serves as a benefit to her.

"I feel like I have stood out from day one," Williams said. "I have always been tall. I am generally loud. I like to make people laugh. I feel like I understood that I was going to stand out, so I am OK with leaning into it. I don't think it's a good look to hide myself, so I may as well take up as much room as possible. I can't hide."

She certainly can't hide, and that's a good thing for the Bears – but not so much Cal's opponents. Williams' presence in the cage last season resulted in an MPSF-leading 10.7 saves per game average, and she was a big reason Cal advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Championships for the sixth time in eight years.

After last season, Williams spent part of the summer training with the U.S. National Team as a leadup to the 2022 FINA World Championships. As she continues to put her stamp on a successful collegiate career, she also has an eye on making a run at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team.

"She was going against the best shooters in the world every day," Simmons said. "She got to test the waters with new personalities and new people that think differently than we do here at Cal, and get out of her comfort zone. I think getting out of your comfort zone can be hard, and that challenge was good for her. She's an elite athlete. She has Olympic possibilities."

It's been a long time now since Williams was first coached by Schofield and goalie coach Mladen Stanicic at the Naval Academy Aquatic Club. The talent and potential were there at a young age. Williams has done all the right things to maximize her performance since.

"She's just a classic example of somebody who shows up for a sport she never played before and checks all the boxes, does all the right things and has some God-given ability," Schofield said. "There is a lot of ground to cover from being 10 years old and becoming an All-American goalie, but she was willing to do the work. The result is what you have going on there now at Cal."