May 2, 2011
BERKELEY -
The California women's water polo team (24-4), fresh off of capturing the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament for the first time in school history, has qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the second time in the past two years and the Golden Bears will take on UC San Diego (17-18) in a first round match-up, Friday, May 13 at 3 p.m. CT at the Canham Natatorium, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Cal, coached by 1996 U.S. Men's Olympic Water Polo coach Richard Corso, is the tournament's No. 2-seeded team and will play the No. 7-seed Tritons.
"What is exciting about our making the NCAA Tournament is we were picked to finish fifth or sixth in our conference," said Corso. "To be the MPSF's automatic qualifier is a great thrill as it was the first time in school history we had won the conference tournament. Of course last year was a big step for us to make it to the NCAAs, but I think only about 50 percent of this year's team was on last year's squad. What has helped us this season is facing a team like Stanford in the regular season and then defeating UCLA in the finals of the MPSF Tournament. Those matches were good learning experiences for us and will help us prepare for the NCAAs in Michigan. This run of ours has been a great team effort, and that is what it is all about."
The other May 13 first round match-ups for the 2011 Women's NCAA Water Polo Tournament will feature No. 3 seed, UCLA (24-6) and No. 6 seed Indiana (25-11) at 4:30 p.m. Stanford will face the winner of the play-in game (the winner of May 7 play-in game between Iona and Redlands) in the third game of the day at 6 p.m. The final contest of the night will pit No. 5 seed UC Irvine (21-8) against No. 4 seed Southern California (18-6) at 7:30 p.m.
The Bears were outstanding last weekend at the MSPF Tournament at San Jose State, defeating San Diego State (7-6), host San Jose State (13-10) and finally UCLA in the title match (7-6) behind two goals apiece from junior Elizabeth McLaren and freshman Ashley Young. Cal's leading scorer this season is sophomore left-hander Breda Vosters, who had a team-high seven goals in the MPSF Tournament, and 62 goals on the year. Two other top players for the Bears are junior team captains Emily Csikos, a first team All-American last year, and goalie Stephanie Peckham, who had 24 saves in the three MPSF Tournament matches.
Even though the Cal women's water polo program will be competing in its second NCAA Tournament (which began in 2001), the Bears competed in the national tournament in each of the first five years of the program's existence as a varsity sport. Cal was the national runners-up from 1996-98, and placed fourth at the national championships during the 1999 and 2000 seasons.
