HONOLULU — A day after claiming the Big West title, the University of Hawai'i women's water polo team was awarded the No. 2 seed in the NCAA National Collegiate Championship. The Rainbow Wahine will face Princeton in the quarterfinals on May 10 in Berkeley, Calif.
 
The Rainbow Wahine returned from Davis, Calif., on Monday and gathered to watch the announcement of the field for the nine-team NCAA Tournament set for May 10-12 at the Spieker Aquatics Complex.
 
UH will face Princeton for the second time this season on May 10 at 4 p.m. Pacific Time (1 p.m. Hawai'i time) in the quarterfinal round. The winner will take on third-seeded and host California or Fresno State in the semifinals on May 11. The championship match is set for May 12 at 7 p.m. Pacific (4 p.m. Hawai'i time).

The first-round and semifinal games will be streamed on ncaa.com. The championship game will air on ESPNU.
 
UH enters its eighth NCAA Tournament appearance, and first since winning the Big West title in 2021, with its highest seeding in program history. The 'Bows' previous high seed was No. 4 in 2005, '06, '09 and '13 and they placed fourth each of those years.
 
UH head coach Maureen Cole will close her career by leading the Rainbow Wahine into the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in her 13-year tenure. It will be her sixth trip overall with UH, including 2009 as an assistant coach.
 
The Rainbow Wahine faced Princeton in this season's home opener on Jan. 26 at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex and came away with a 10-6 victory. UH is 8-2 all-time against the Tigers, the Collegiate Water Polo Association champions.
 
UCLA (23-0) is the No. 1 seed in the tournament after winning the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship. The at-large berths went to the next three teams in the MPSF — California (17-6), Stanford (18-6) and Southern California (18-8).
 
The other automatic qualifiers were Fresno State (21-7, Golden Coast Conference), Princeton (23-6 CWPA), Biola (14-16, Western Water Polo Association) and Wagner (29-4, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference).
 
UH faced six of the other eight teams in the field and went 6-3 in those games. The Rainbow Wahine have wins over Stanford, Princeton, Fresno State and Cal and two against USC. Their three losses have come against UCLA (twice) and Cal in a game at the Spieker Aquatics Complex.