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Women's Water Polo at National Chamionship Tournament - Printable Version

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Re: Women's Water Polo at National Chamionship Tournament - FarmBoy - 05-15-2017

The gap between Stanford, UCLA and 'SC is pretty ridiculous.

Re: Women's Water Polo at National Chamionship Tournament - Treefence - 05-15-2017

(05-15-2017, 05:45 AM)FarmBoy link Wrote:The gap between Stanford, UCLA and 'SC is pretty ridiculous.

It's funny because there's about the same gap in women's water polo between Stanford, UCLA, and USC vs every other school in the country.  In the history of women's water polo those three schools are the only ones to win the championship.  Only two times has another team even made the championship game, in Cal and LMU (once each).  Which begs the question raised in a previous thread, why have the tournament anywhere but California. 

Re: Women's Water Polo at National Chamionship Tournament - FarmBoy - 05-15-2017

(05-15-2017, 08:09 AM)Treefence link Wrote:[quote author=FarmBoy link=topic=16886.msg193145#msg193145 date=1494852313]
The gap between Stanford, UCLA and 'SC is pretty ridiculous.

It's funny because there's about the same gap in women's water polo between Stanford, UCLA, and Under Stanford Control (again) vs every other school in the country.  In the history of women's water polo those three schools are the only ones to win the championship.  Only two times has another team even made the championship game, in ןɐɔ and LMU (once each).  Which begs the question raised in a previous thread, why have the tournament anywhere but California.
[/quote]

It also begs the question, to me, of whether this should be an NCAA sport. What exactly are the rules on what qualifies as NCAA and what doesn't? When a single conference, let alone just three teams, so thoroughly dominate, and it doesn't appear other programs are going to invest and/or catch up any time soon, does it make sense to call this a "national" championship?

Its the same way I respond to Cal fans getting all hot and bothered by their rugby dominance

Re: Women's Water Polo at National Chamionship Tournament - Canalejas - 05-15-2017

I'm not sure men's rugby is the best analogy for what happens in women's water polo.  There are 32 NCAA D1 water polo programs.  Is WWP one of the sports with a championship open to all NCAA divisions?  If so, we can also count the 28 programs in divisions 2&3.  Men's rugby, on the other hand, has just two varsity programs among schools that play NCAA D1 sports, UCB and West Point.  Even if you expand the pool to include rugby programs at schools that play NCAA D2, D3, NAIA and USCAA you still only get 16 rugby programs.

Re: Women's Water Polo at National Chamionship Tournament - CTcard - 05-15-2017

(05-15-2017, 08:09 AM)Treefence link Wrote:Which begs the question raised in a previous thread, why have the tournament anywhere but California.

Perhaps to encourage a situation where this is no longer the case?


There are 32 women's water polo teams in division 1, and 26 in divisions 2 and 3.
Not exactly the most commonly played sport, but certainly not the least. There are several NCAA sports that are struggling to have enough teams to make them truly national and competitive.

For example, there are 15 schools with division 1 mens gymnastics programs and one division 3 team that competes with division 1.
There are 22 men's division 1 water polo teams - so the women have that beat.
There's 27 division 1 fencing teams, 22 with men.
There's about 30 mens volleyball division 1 teams, but I think they compete with a handful of division 2 teams.
There's 35 womens ice hockey NCAA division 1 teams.
etc.

Re: Women's Water Polo at National Chamionship Tournament - pefloresjr - 05-15-2017

All Right Now!!!  So happy for the team.  Ecstatic for Stanford at long last catching UCLA!

I missed the game online because I was at the Stanford Powwow so I will have to catch up on the full action later, but I did view the highlights.  On the video clip from the GoStanford site posted by Eric above, I slowed down the video and the Steffens goal is amazing.  The pass comes into her with her defender and three other pairs of players/defenders between her and the goal.  She doesn't catch the pass cleanly and goes under water.  I assume she was pulled under by her defender but I can't tell.  From underwater, Steffens tries to grab the ball, misses, then reaches again to finally get her hand on top of the ball.  Then, in an instant, she rises up from underwater as she lifts the ball and fires the shot with no hesitation.  She knew that when she came up with possession of that ball, she was going to simultaneously  rise, turn, and fire the shot through traffic and into the goal.  The UCLA defenders and goalie raised their hands to try to block the shot but they were all too late, the shot had already gone by.  The stunned looks on their faces showed that they weren't expecting the shot to come out that quickly when Steffens was still underwater trying to get possession.  I know very little about water polo but Steffens clearly showed athletic greatness with that championship goal.  I have to say it again.  All Right Now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gatKjUgcOhA

Cheers,
Pete F.

Re: Women's Water Polo at National Chamionship Tournament - bbm233 - 05-15-2017

(05-14-2017, 07:39 PM)Boston Card link Wrote:Also, the conference is now only two titles away from 500.  Of course between us and UCLA, that's almost half.

BC

And likely to get to 500 soon with Pac-12 teams being amongst the favorites in rowing, golf, softball, T&F and baseball.

Re: Women's Water Polo at National Chamionship Tournament - fullmetal - 05-15-2017

The women's rowing championship will probably be won by Washington, who is thriving under first-year head coach Yaz Farooq (previously from Stanford for about the last decade).  Stanford misses Yaz, as they finished third behind UW and kal in just about every event at the Pac-12 championships.

But...there's more rowing to be had yet.  NCAAs in two weeks.  Everyone from semester-calendar schools is going to two-a-days and national team-like training camps while the quarter system schools are left to deal with it.  Still, UW will probably overcome...

Re: Women's Water Polo at National Chamionship Tournament - Treebound - 05-15-2017

I hated to see Yaz transfer to UW.  Does anyone know why she made the jump to the great white/wet north?  She was clearly talented and well liked from what I witnessed.

Re: Women's Water Polo at National Chamionship Tournament - fullmetal - 05-16-2017

UW clearly made her an offer she couldn't refuse.  Plus, plenty of talent at UW, plenty of tradition, none of the admissions restrictions, and a new woman AD, to boot.  Rising Bay Area living costs, etc as well? 

She'd won a national championship at Stanford, and perhaps she just needed a change of scenery.