Tournament Notes
Tournament Bracket (pdf) (interactive)
Tournament Info
Tournament Program
Watch Live | VIDEO: UH Gears Up For NCAAs |
 

The University of Hawai'i women's water polo team heads to the 2013 NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship May 10-12 at the Blodgett Pool on the campus of Harvard University in Boston. The No. 4 Rainbow Wahine will open the tournament against No. 5 seed UC San Diego on Friday, May 10 at 7:00 p.m. ET (1:00 p.m. HT).
 
UH will be making its fourth appearance—and first since 2009—in the NCAA Championship, an eight-team tournament with both a championship and consolation bracket. The No. 1 seed was awarded to MPSF champion USC. Two-time defending NCAA champion Stanford enters as the No. 2 seed, while fellow league member UCLA is the No. 3 seed. No. 6 seed Princeton (CWPPA), No. 7 Iona (WWPA) and No. 8 Pomona-Pitzer (SCIAC) round out the field.
 
The winner of Friday's UH-UCSD match will advance to Saturday's semifinals where they will face either USC or Pomona-Pitzer at 5:15 p.m. ET (11:15 a.m. HT). The loser will be relegated to the consolation bracket.  
 
The Rainbow Wahine earned an automatic bid after capturing the Big West Tournament title on April 28 with a dramatic 5-4 double-overtime win over UC Irvine. UH enters the tournament with a 21-9 record and riding a season-long eight-match win streak.
 
UH will meet UC San Diego for the second time in the pool this year. The Rainbow Wahine defeated the Tritons, 9-6, on March 30 in a non-conference match in Honolulu. UC San Diego (25-13), which went undefeated in the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA), gained an NCAA berth following a 10-8 win over Loyola Marymount in the league title game on April 28.
 
This will be the first NCAA Championship for Maureen Cole as a UH head coach. The second-year skipper and 2013 Big West Coach of the Year was an assistant on UH's 2009 NCAA squad. The Rainbow Wahine have finished in fourth place in all three of its previous NCAA appearances (2005, '06, '09).  UH has participated in eight postseasons all together, which also includes four bids to the National Collegiate Championship, the precursor to the NCAA Championship.
 
UH is powered by Big West Player of the Year Monika Eggens who led the conference in goals scored this season with 93 and set Big West records for most goals in a season, goals per game (3.10) and goals scored in the conference tournament (9).The native of British Columbia—a two-time first-team All-American and all-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation selection—is the school's all-time leading scorer (244) and just six goals shy of setting a new school single-season mark.