The fate of the Cal women’s water polo team will be determined this weekend.
The MPSF tournament is being held at the Spieker Aquatics Complex this weekend, as the women’s water polo MPSF teams come to Berkeley to compete for a spot in the NCAA tournament in May. The No. 5 Bears need to win the whole tournament in order to qualify for a spot.
“For all the seniors, it’s our last home game, so that puts an element of emotion into it,” said senior Taylor Dodson. “And it’s a lot more intense because this is our last opportunity to qualify for the NCAA tournament.”
Dodson is referring to the Bears’ No. 5 ranking, which at the current moment will not be enough to get them to the NCAA tournament. Only the top three teams from the MPSF will go on to the NCAAs, and Cal will need to take home first in order to move on.
While winning the tournament is doable, it definitely won’t be easy with the top five teams in the country all in the same league. The Bears have lost to all of the top four teams throughout the season.
If Cal wins the first round, they will play against No. 1 Stanford on Saturday. The Bears will have to beat the Cardinal in order to make it to the championship game.
But first, Cal will have to play against No. 4 UCLA. The Bears are kicking off the MPSF tournament by taking on the Bruins on Friday at 2:30 p.m. at Spieker Aquatics Complex. Cal is 0-2 this season against the Bruins, losing 7-4 during the Stanford Invitational in February, and 10-7 during conference play in March.
“Last time against UCLA, we were doing really well, and then we just kind of went off the grid for the last period,” said senior driver Emily Csikos. “If we can be consistent for the entire game and play our style as opposed to trying to match their style, I think we’ll be in great shape.”
A continuing trend with Cal against these top ranked teams is its lack of consistency throughout the entire game. The focus for this upcoming game against UCLA will be the Bears’ defense, which had a strong showing against No. 1 Stanford last weekend but, like in other games, fell short in the final quarter.
“We know how they play, so shutting down some of their bigger scorers is a goal for us, to keep the intensity high and to keep our defense composed,” said Dodson. “We need to make sure that we’re ready to play defense even when we’re on offense.”
With just three teams from the MPSF going to the NCAA tournament, two of the top five teams in the nation will inevitably be left at home.
“This tournament will be better than the NCAA championships,” said Cal coach Rich Corso. “This is better water polo; the level of water polo will be much higher here.”
Alicia Fong covers women’s water polo. Contact her at [email protected].