UCLA was awarded an at-large berth and the No. 2 seed for the 2026 National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship, according to an April 13 announcement by the NCAA Women’s Water Polo Committee. The Bruins, holding a season record of 20-4, will play No. 7 seed Harvard (26-3) in the first round.
The tournament is set to take place at Canyonview Pool in La Jolla, California, hosted by UC San Diego. The event follows a single-elimination format with eight teams competing for the national title. An opening-round match between Wagner (15-12) and Concordia University Irvine (20-9) on Wednesday, April 22 will determine the final team in the bracket. UCLA’s first-round game against Harvard is scheduled for Friday, April 24 at 4 p.m. Pacific Time.
Other matchups include top-seeded Stanford facing either Wagner or Concordia at noon on April 24; California meeting Hawai’i at 2 p.m.; and USC playing LMU at 6 p.m., all on the same day as UCLA’s opener. Semifinal games are slated for Saturday, April 25.
Automatic qualification to this year’s tournament was given to conference champions from six conferences: Big West Conference (Hawai’i), Collegiate Water Polo Association (Harvard), Golden Coast Conference (LMU), Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (Wagner), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (Stanford), and Western Water Polo Association (Concordia). UCLA, USC, and California received at-large selections without geographical restrictions.
First-round and semifinal matches will be streamed live on NCAA.com while ESPNU will provide television coverage of Sunday’s national championship game.
This marks UCLA’s twenty-fourth appearance in the National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship and thirtieth overall championship showing. The Bruins have won twelve national titles—most recently going undefeated to claim victory in 2024—and enter this year’s tournament with an all-time NCAA record of forty-six wins and fifteen losses (.754). Last year, they defeated LMU before falling to USC in the semifinals.
